Torino President Urbano Cairo effectively confirmed that coach Ivan Juric will leave at the end of the season. ‘He did not want to renew.’
The writing had been on the wall for some time, as Cairo’s contract is due to expire on June 30 and he said several times that he would move on if he failed to get the team into Europe.
That now seems frankly unlikely after last night’s 0-0 draw with Bologna, yet another stalemate, and Cairo confirmed as much today.
“I invested a great deal on his requests, but he did not want to renew and contracts come to an end,” Cairo told reporters at the inauguration of a Torino youth academy training centre.
“Last year, he told me to sign Ivan Ilic. I told him, I will make this investment because it is what you ask of me, he is a very good player, but I want you to remain with us. Then he hesitated, asked for more time, and wanted to keep other options open.
“This is the strongest Toro team of my 18 years at the club, even Giampiero Ventura said so, and he knows about football. I don’t know what went wrong this season, you’d have to ask other people that.
“We brought in players like Duvan Zapata and Raoul Bellanova, so we have a core and will reinforce where necessary.”
Juric admits to Torino errors
Juric had also commented on Sky Sport Italia last night about what went wrong at Torino this season, admitting to making mistakes in the selection of his squad.
“We were wrong at the start of the season to put our faith in certain players who in the end gave us nothing. We did not evaluate them the right way, I thought that I could help these players to improve, but it didn’t happen.”
Torino therefore need to find a new coach and Sky Sport Italia suggest the main candidate is Paolo Vanoli, who is currently in charge of Serie B side Venezia.