The moment has come at Toro when everyone feels the need to remove a few pebbles from their shoes. To qualify for the Conference League, a sporting miracle is needed, considering the Granata’s poor pace in the last period, so it’s easier to get away with it. Even putting a little spice into the statements. Like those of Ivan Juric after the drawn match at home against Bologna: «This year the team gave its all, but I focused on the wrong players: in January we had to sell five. After 8-9 games we changed everything and since then I have been happy: this is my regret. And then I think that some players could have scored a few more goals, especially on the wings where we only scored once with Bellanova”.
Insufficiencies, disagreements and forced choices: Juric’s disappointment
As regards the bands, the reference to is clear Mergim Vojvoda, Valentino Lazaro and Brandon Soppy (shipwrecked already in January), certainly not returning from a sufficient year. But Juric’s reasoning affects above all other elements, despite Cairo having tried to throw water on the fire to defend the value of the cards: «Talking now about players who have “betrayed” in my opinion makes no sense», so on Saturday at Robaldo. It’s normal for this to be the case, since the club and coach will take different paths. So, which players is Juric referring to? There seems to be no doubt, starting with those who packed their bags in January. Nemanja Radonjic and Demba Seck, in fact, are at the top of the manager’s list of negative thoughts. The Serbian playmaker, now on loan at Mallorca, was supposed to be the brightest star in Toro’s attacking department. Instead, nothing. Already since September, despite the three goals in the first month of the championship, relationships have become unmanageable. It is enough to remember the reason why he started from the bench against Genoa, in the third game of the championship: the first frictions occurred during the week, which broke out just before finishing. Then Radonjic enters and decides the match with Grifone. Nothing, however, settled down and after the 0-0 home draw against Verona on 2 October the former Benfica and Marseille player scored just 26 minutes. It didn’t go any better for Demba Seck either, who in some way oriented the market choices of the last few days, when the Bull was on the trail of people like Miranchuk and Barrow, for example. Juric decides to focus on the Senegalese, who soon runs aground: inconsistent from a technical point of view, he then also had to face the well-known off-field vicissitudes. Lead to the inevitable loan to Frosinone. Whoever will replace the Croatian will have the task of giving meaning to an investment that has so far failed.
Few goals and a lot of bitterness: who betrayed Juric
Three men cannot be missing from Juric’s blacklist: Ivan Ilic, Tonny Sanabria and Pietro Pellegri. The former Verona player, paid 16 million a year and a half ago, has become the tombstone of the relationship between the club and the coach: the Serbian’s inconsistency has in fact never been digested by Cairo. And then Sanabria, protected from Lazio’s attack. Torino could have made money with him in the summer, but chose to keep him to increase the level of the offensive department. From the moment Zapata set foot in Philadelphia, however, the Paraguayan has deeply disappointed. Like Pellegri, on the other hand, continually affected by more or less serious injuries, he only managed 577 minutes. Very few, despite being distributed over 21 appearances. And the goal tally is still at zero. Juric hoped to be able to make him explode in Serie A, remembering the times spent together at Genoa, but the mission was postponed to a later date. At Toro, in view of the summer transfer market, there is no shortage of thorns.
