Torino Football Club defied all expectations in Lorenzo Bonino’s first season at the helm. Struggles from the likes of Inter, Napoli, Milan and Juventus saw Roma edge an exciting Serie A title race ahead of Udinese and Como while Torino secured Champions League football for the first time in club history by finishing 4th. But now he needed to avoid the risk of second season syndrome by building on a threadbare squad while having a far busier fixture schedule.
Days after securing European football, Bonino received a WhatsApp message from his old pal Gianluigi Lentini, which simply said: “Pack a bag. I’m outside.” Bonino cracked the blinds in his living room and spotted Lentini waiting in his ludicrously suave red Ferrari. He waved and packed a bag with a few clothes and hurried down to meet him. Lentini noisily drove through Bonino’s quiet neighbourhood, explaing that Signore Cairo was “beyond delighted with Bonino exceeding expectations and ticking off the first challenge by finishing above Juventus.”
They drove out to a picturesque village out in the countryside, where Lentini pulled up outside a lavish mansion outside which President Cairo was sunbathing by the pool with his wife, children and grandchildren. Cairo rose from his seat, gave Bonino a huge hug, introduced the manager to his vast extended family and told him they were just in time for lunch. While sitting down to enjoy an impressive spread of delicious food, Cairo further hammered home his delight at the job Bonino had done. However, the big bombshell came that, now at the age of 70, he felt his time running the club was at an end. “You, Lorenzo, have helped me achieve my dream of seeing Torino FC finish above Juventus and join Europe’s elite in the Champions League, and with that, my job is done,” he explained.
Over the next few months, there were endless news items about different parties attempting to buy Cairo out of the club. But, on 22 August 2027, Cairo was replaced by English businessman Stewart Donald who, very randomly, is the guy who purchased Sunderland in the Netflix documentary Sunderland ‘Til I Die. But any morsel of excitement was tempered by him providing zero investment upon taking control of the club.
Bonino’s second season began with a disappointing departure as, having announced he wanted to join a “bigger club,” Nikola Vlasic moved to Zenit for £6.75m – noted, on £50k a week when he wanted at least £85k to stay! The manager’s reaction to that move was simply: “Hope you’re happy in Russia, Nikola.” Bonino also allowed centre back Ardian Ismajili and 22 reserve team players to leave at the end of their contracts, freeing up an additional £75k per week in wages, and sold 16 backup players from the Under 20s for an additional £14m. And the expiration of four loans freed up another £108k of wages. Amusingly, all of Italy’s elite came in for Bonino’s scouting team, making him around £2m in compensation before going out and signing better scouts on significantly lower wages.
Worryingly, the Torino board only handed the manager a transfer budget of £900k. However, he had already pre-agreed deals to sign winger Leonel Flores for £10m from Boca, last season’s loanee left back Niccoló Fortini for £8m from Fiorentina and centre backs Jan Leszczynski and Álvaro Guich for £3m and £1m from Gladbach and Rosario Central. He also signed Luca Netz for £1.1m from Nottingham Forest and centre back Martin Vítik for £5m from Bologna, and loaned in promising midfielder Valerio Maccaroni from Roma. And they all joined exciting goalkeeper Rui Araki, who signed for £3.9m in January then went back to Japan on loan. However, just after the transfer window closed, they were dealt a blow as Bonino was forced to sell midfielder Cesare Casadei to Saudi for £15m.
Bonino stuck with the 4-4-1-1 approach he introduced at the end of last season. Giovanni Simeone leads the way up top, supported by either Gvidas Gineitis and Angelo or Flores on the right with rising star Alessio Cacciamani on the left. The defence looks a bit more solid with Vitík coming in alongside Eray Comert, while 18-year-old Luca Weinhandl, who Bonino wanted to retrain to provide cover at centre back, steps into the boots of Casadei alongside new captain Rodrigo Mondragora.
Tough Start to Season Two in Torino
Massive news in Italy saw Gasperini leave Roma fresh from winning the title to join PSG, and was replaced by Marco Rose. Last season’s star man Nico Paz joined PSG for £92m, Roma signed Jack Grealish, and elsewhere Kylian Mbappé signed for Man City for £212m and Arsenal sold Havertz to Real for £80m and replaced him with Lautaro for £50m. The Italian bookies didn’t love Bonino’s transfer business, predicting Torino to finish 12th in Serie A. Holders Roma are favourites, followed by Inter, Napoli, Milan, Juventus, Atalanta, Como and Lazio.
Unsurprisingly, a flurry of injuries hit the squad in the week before Torino’s season opener at home to promoted Palermo. They completely dominated and missed a mass of chances before Mandragora hit a 25-yard stunner into the far corner 8 minutes after halftime. And he scored an even better goal 7 minutes from time, half volleying into the top corner from 30 yards, which earned a comfortable 2-0 victory.
Mandragora scored another screamer after Vitík powered in his first goal for the club in an easy 3-0 win at Lecce. Simeone won and converted a penalty just before halftime against Roma, but Castro equalised and a poor second half tailed off to finish 2-2. And they were put to the sword next time out, losing 3-1 again at Milan. A gruelling start to the season continued with a Mole Derby at home to Juventus, which Torino began well but wasted chances and Juve scored their first shot from a corner. But they levelled through a Ginetis rocket. And Torino were slightly frustrated by a 1-1 draw.
That was followed by a disappointing 4-2 loss at Como, which sent them into an international break in 10th place. They bounced back from that with Cacciamani creating the improving Weinhandl’s first two goals in a 4-1 win at home to Udinese. However, they immediately wasted a mass of chances while Fiorentina scored all of theirs in a shocking 4-0 home defeat. Flores finally made his debut as a heavily rotated side struggled to a 1-1 at Padova before Cacciamani and Simeone secured the same results at home to Atalanta and at Lazio. They put in a decent performance at home to Inter but early Gineitis and late Emirhan Ílkhan strikes were immediately cancelled out for a 2-2. But a five-game winless run ended with Cacciamani and Simeone earning a 2-0 win at Roberto Martinez’s Sassuolo.
The patchy form continued with a pathetic 1-0 defeat at Parma, but some magnificent play by Cacciamani created Simeone’s opener at home to Bologna and sent Gineitis in to lay on the striker’s second. They obviously let the first shot faced in straight after halftime but, for a change, they hung on for a much-needed win. Any momentum was thrown away by losing 3-1 at home to Napoli, before ending 2027 with a tame 0-0 at Cagliari, in which they yet again missed masses of chances but gave up all the possession.
That left Torino in 10th place heading into a winter break, with 23 points, 26 goals scored and 26 conceded after 18 games. Somehow, holders Roma are just 1 point outside the relegation zone… while Lecce are top of the league from Milan, Inter and Juve.
Champions League Debut
Torino’s first ever season in the Champions League served up a few tricky fixtures at home to Chelsea and Bayern and a trip to PSG. However, a few friendlier games offered opportunities for points, including trips to Scotland and Serbia.
The UI turned an intriguing shade of blue ahead of Torino’s debut among Europe’s elite, for which they travelled to Spain to play Villarreal. They struggled early on, but grew into the game after the break and Gineitis and Simeone strikes earned them a point. That was followed by a tough first home game against Chelsea. Both sides hit the woodwork in the first half hour but, despite having more chances, Torino went behind to Joao Pedro’s strike. They continued to push after the break but to no avail, and could count themselves pretty unlucky not to at least get a point.
A strange game at Rangers followed, for which Torino were apparently the underdogs, as the hosts dominated possession and the chances. But Cacciamani was the star of the show as he created the equaliser for Simeone and scored himself before substitute Ílkhan crowned an unlikely 3-1 victory to claim Torino’s first ever Champions League win. An unsurprising 2-0 defeat followed at home to Bayern before getting absolutely dominated at PSG and doing well to only lose 4-0.
Mandragora scored another stunner, this time from a freekick, to open the scoring at home to Galatasaray. But they failed to build on that, allowed the Turks to control the second half and lost 2-1. That left Torino in 30th place in the league table on just 4 points, trailing the top 24 by 3 points with two more to play.
Meeting Objectives but Plenty of Frustration
In context, Torino were doing fairly well in the league and meeting the objective of a mid-table finish despite the distraction of Champions League football. It was clear that this squad was nowhere near good enough for them to compete at that level, and they looked very likely to be exiting early. But Bonino couldn’t help but be frustrated by his team. They routinely gave up massive amounts of possession while having lots of shots without really creating big chances, and plenty of players were consistently underperforming.
So the manager was slightly at a loss, but he was considering big changes heading into 2028. But could Torino look up the Serie A table, or would they be looking over their shoulders? Join us on Friday to find out!
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