Over a week
ago on the Forza Italian Football website, writer Marco Jackson talked about
Torino’s “quiet revolution”. Valid points were made on Jackson’s part but
Torino can be so much more. The granata
must stop living in Juventus’ shadow as well as Il Grande Torino’s.
Urbano Cairo’s
current Torino side is arguably the best squad assembled in the eight years of
his presidency. Angelo Ogbonna is an emerging centre-back, Alessio Cerci has
been excellent on the right-wing and Rolando Bianchi has been leading the
attack and leading the team by example.
Coach
Giampiero Ventura deserves a lot of credit too. The granata gained promotion from Serie B to Serie A in his
first season and building the team around players he coached a Bari in
2009-10, when the Pugliese side had just been promoted from Serie B and
finished 10th.
Ventura has
found the right combinations since taking over, mixing “his boys” with the
current squad as well as some quality additions. He has done a better job than
any of the coaches in Toro’s previous stint, who were carried by the mercurial Alessandro
Rosina.
Cairo has
kept Torino financial afloat since becoming the club president but he lacks
ambition. The “other” team in Turin is not as good as the team that won its
first title in 1927-28 or the force it was when it dominated the Serie A in the
1940s.
After Valentino
Mazzola and his teammates perished at Superga all those years ago, there hasn’t
been much to cheer about. Toro won its last scudetto
in 1975-76 with Francesco Graziani and Paolo Pulici in attack and reached its
only European cup final in 1992, losing the UEFA Cup Final to Dutch giants Ajax
Amsterdam on away goals.
Juve has won
many more trophies and possessed plenty of iconic attacking players to cheer on
and talk about. The bianconeri had Giampiero Boniperti in their squad when the granata dominated calcio. In the post-Superga era, Toro can’t claim to have stars
like Omar Sivori, Roberto Bettega, Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio and
Alessandro Del Piero just to name a few.
After
Superga, the granata have had their
share of “what ifs” too. Enigmatic winger Luigi Meroni was run over and killed
in 1967 and another winger Gianluigi Lentini was sold to Milan in a world
record transfer in 1992, only to have a near-fatal car crash and return a
lesser player. Rosina also hasn’t lived up to his potential since leaving Toro.
If only these players had more luck or Toro could keep them.
The general
consensus among granata fans is: “A
man who doesn’t understand Superga can never understand Torino.” Unfortunately
over 60 years on, both the club and its fans live in its shadows. Former Toro
president Franco Cimminelli once said: “Those Torino supporters should stop
crying about Superga.” As controversial as those comments were, there is some
validity in his comments.
Il Grande
Torino is rated as one of the greatest sides calcio has ever witnessed but
remembering them is not enough. Torino’s fans and players should be inspired by
their example. They must not think that they are not worthy of those who
perished in 1949. The goal must be to emulate them.
Juventus mourned
when some of its fans died at Heysel in 1985. Likewise when Juve youth team
players Alessio Ferramosca and Riccardo Neri drowned in 2006. Before and after
those tragedies, the bianconeri fans
had great teams to support. Their memory lives on but Juve is still a force to
be reckoned with.
You may
wonder why I would compare the deaths of fans and youth players to the passing
of superstars. Juventus has stayed strong in the present and planned for the
future as opposed to Torino, who have been dictated to their past.
The “quiet
revolution” is a good plan in the short term. For the Toro faithful, as well as
neutrals or if you are cynical, the anti-Juve, the club needs to maintain its
current stars and aim to buy better players.
Torino is
known to have more fans in Turin than Juventus. They have seen their rivals produce one great
side after another, leaving its mark on the Serie A and on European
competitions. Il Grande Torino once
made up the majority of the Italian squad yet Juve can claim to have players
making vital contributions to Italy’s World Cup wins. I’m sure Toro fans are
sick of seeing those sights.
Torino needs
to make progress. Whether Cairo is the president to build a team capable of
winning Toro’s eighth scudetto is
anyone’s guess but the granata must
step out of the dark and not enjoy the silence. Whether you are a Torino fan, a
football romantic who admires the feats of Il
Grande Torino or an anti-Juve, calcio
is crying out for another great squad from the other side of Turin.
Time to make
some noise!
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