Torino FC successfully recorded consecutive top-half finishes in Serie A after manager Lorenzo Bonino navigated his side through a tricky period largely caused by balancing domestic and continental football. Now, he was looking forward to honing a stronger squad for his third campaign in charge.
However, that may be easier said than done, given president Stewart Donald only handed him a £10m transfer budget with £85k spare in a weekly wage budget of £785k. Bonino toyed with the idea of allowing top scorer Giovanni Simeone to leave at the end of his contract but, given the lack of available strikers, decided against it and handed the striker a new two-year deal that lowered his wage from £52k to £45k per week. He also locked down star youngster Alessio Cacciamani, who’d flirted with the idea of joining a bigger club, to a new five-year deal and captain Rolando Mondragora to a two-year deal.
A few players did leave, with backup left back Luca Netz going to Osasuna for £2m and midfielder Pietro Candelari joining Wehen Wiesbaden for £1.4m. Fellow midfielder Gvidas Gineitis, who only mustered 11 goal contributions last season, got ideas above his station and announced he wanted to join a bigger club and went to Udinese for £4.5m, which Bonino wasn’t sure matched the midfielder’s reason for leaving.
Bonino did manage to strengthen the squad, led by snapping up goalkeeper Guillaume Restes on a free from Strasbourg. He brought in midfielder Samuel Inácio for just £2.5m from Dortmund, 16-year-old striker Bozo Postjanski for £2.5m from Lokomotiva, promising Ecuadorians winger Luis Fragozo for £1.2m from Emelec and centre back Maykel Renteria for £650k from Liga de Quito and midfielder Pol Fortuno after he left Real Madrid. And, on deadline day, they were joined by rapid striker Mohamed Meité, whose signing was forced by an injury to Simeone but quickly developed into a better player, and midfielder Christian Comotto on loan from Al Hilal and Milan.
Bonino stuck with the 4-3-3 that had worked pretty well at the end of last season. Cacciamani is the primary attacking threat on the left, with Leonel Flores a little deeper on the right and Inácio alongside Mandragora in midfield with the improving Luca Weinhandl in behind them. And they’re supported by the solid and sizeable defensive quartet of Niccoló Fortini, Valentin Zabransky, Martin Vítik and Adam Bakoune.
Restes Provides an Immediate Impact
Bonino’s third season at Torino began with a trip to Bologna. They started slowly but a wonderful one-two between Simeone and Mandragora sent the latter in to open the scoring. But, as is customary with this team, they gave up a late equaliser. Flores finally delivered a good performance as he scored one and created Inácio’s first goal for the club before Simeone capped off a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Frosinone. However, probably the worst news possible saw Simeone sidelined for a couple of months with a calf strain. Without him, they struggled to a 1-0 defeat at Milan, thanks to conceding another late goal, before Meité had an impressive debut, scoring both goals in a 2-1 win at home to Roma.
That was followed by a first Mole Derby of the season at their rivals. Torino edged the first half and won a penalty just before the break, only for Inácio to miss it. Juve came back into it after halftime, but the sides played out a tame 0-0 that Bonino felt Torino should have won. Inácio made up for that miss next time out, scoring from the spot as Mandragora ran the show in a 3-0 win over Padova.
The solid start continued, including Comotto scoring the only goal at Parma, before a humbling 6-1 hammering at Udinese, after they’d conceded 5 times in the opening 10 games! But they responded in style as a Meité brace and Simeone on his return capped a dominant 3-0 win at home to Monza. That was followed by arguably the biggest win of the Bonino reign as early Inácio and Meité strikes earned an impressive 2-0 win at Inter, largely inspired by a solid Restes performance. And that win took Torino top of Serie A for the first time after 13 games.
Inácio scored twice as Torino crushed a struggling Napoli 4-0 to move 4 points clear of Atalanta and Inter. That teed up a huge game in late December as Torino hosted Atalanta the day after Inter lost 1-0 at home to Fiorentina. They played out a tame first half but Bonino’s words had an immediate impact as Torino went straight from the kick off and Flores’ pass picked out Meité to neatly convert off the far post. Nothing else happened and Torino cruised to a straightforward 1-0 victory. However, 2028 wrapped up with a 1-0 defeat at Fiorentina, which left Torino still top of the table by 6 points from Atalanta with the best defence in Serie A having conceded just 12 times – 6 of which were in one match. But Inter and Bologna both had a game in hand lurking just behind Atalanta.
Torino’s Title Challenge?
The signing of Restes had transformed Torino from mid-table mediocrity last season to potential title challengers in Bonino’s third season at the club. Other than the bizarre six-goal humiliation at Udinese, the Frenchman had only conceded 5 times in 17 league games and led the league with 11 clean sheets, as well as having the best save percentage (86%) and 4th best xG prevented (-2.69).
Could Restes continue to inspire Torino and lead his side into a surprise title challenge? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
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