Grande Torino
The was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superga air disaster.
With this name, although it is commonly used to identify the team that died in the disaster, it defines the entire sports cycle which lasted eight years and led to the conquest of five consecutive championships, equaling the record previously set by Juventus of the Quinquennio d'oro; Grande Torino also won a Coppa Italia.
Ferruccio Novo's tenure
In the summer of 1939, the industrialist Ferruccio Novo, at age 42, assumed the presidency of Torino, succeeding Giovanni Battista Cuniberti.Novo was not a patron, but a careful administrator: he had entered Torino at a young age, even donning the jersey as a player, in 1913: a subpar player, he continued to follow the team as an enthusiastic fan first, then with the tasks socio-financier and advisor. He also once started a factory of leather accessories with his brother.
His first moves as Torino president were therefore ones to reorganize the club, and following the suggestions of Vittorio Pozzo, make management more similar to the models of the English teams, then at the forefront: he surrounded himself with competent employees, such former players Antonio Janni and Mario Sperone, and Giacinto Ellena; Rinaldo Agnisetta was given the role of managing director; Roberto Copernicus, who owned a clothing store, was named the role of counsellor; Englishman Leslie Lievesley was given the role of youth coach; while the technical direction of the team was given to Ernest Egri Erbstein, who, of Jewish origin, worked incognito because of the racial laws.
The first "hit" of Novo was to purchase a talented 18-year-old Franco Ossola from Varese that, with hindsight, would be first piece of the squad: Ossola cost 55 thousand Italian lire, a small amount at the time, under the suggestion Janni and Ellena. He made his debut on 4 February 1940 in 1–0 win against Novara. That year, Ossola played two more matches, against Bologna and Napoli.
World War II
Italy, which until then had remained neutral, on 10 June 1940 entered World War II on the side of the Axis powers. Benito Mussolini was so sure the war would be a "lightning war" that he announced the players would remain at home, claiming: "We need them more on the fields than the army."The following year, Ossola showed his value as top scorer for the Granata, scoring 14 goals from 22 appearances, but the team as a whole did not change form. Torino ended the season in seventh position with 30 points, nine less than champions Bologna. Two players retired that year: Oberdan Ussello, who in turn took over the youth team; and Raf Vallone, who devoted himself to a career in cinema and theatre.
The foresight to Novo allowed him to take advantage of the climate of stagnation and lack of investment. There was little money in football, which Novo anticipated. In view of the 1941–42 Serie A season, Torino brought in five new players: Ferraris II, who played on the left wing for 1938 FIFA World Cup champions Italy, was signed from Ambrosiana for 250,000 lire; Romeo Menti, a winger with good technique and a powerful shot who was signed from Fiorentina at the recommendation of Ellena; and Alfredo Bodoira, Felice Borel and Guglielmo Gabetto, all from Turin city rivals Juventus.
The arrival of Gabetto at Torino was due in part to Borel, who, perhaps to reward Novo for his faith after acquiring him from Juventus after years of misunderstanding techniques, revealed Gabetto, which Juventus considered was "finished" as a player, would be sold to the Genoa for 300,000 lire. Borel suggested to raise the bid and Novo purchased the striker for 330,000 lire.
From the "metodo" to the "sistema"
The turning point came when Felice Borel, Ellena and Copernicus suggested to Novo that Torino should be set up with the sistema tactic, a new form of the game in those years.Until then, the most popular tactic was the metodo, a more defensive arrangement whose strength was mainly the counterattack, which had allowed the Italy national team of Vittorio Pozzo to win the 1934 and 1938 World Cups. In defence, there were only two fullbacks and a defensive midfielder which shuttled forward on the offence. In midfield, the offence was set by the centre midfielders, while the wingers were designed to serve the ball for the striker. The attacking phase was not easy, as the offside rule stipulated there must be three players between the striker and the goal, therefore only one defender had to advance to trigger the offside trap.
In 1926, the offside rule was changed: two players needed to advance to trigger offside. This created many immediate difficulties for the teams of the time and greatly increased the number of goals in the league.
In the 1930s, Englishman Herbert Chapman, manager of Arsenal, developed a new tactic called the sistema or "WM" which in practice was a type of 3–2–2–3 formation, with three defenders, four midfielders and three forwards positioned at the points of a "W" and "M". Chapman, reorganizing the defence, chose to move back a holding midfielder, creating a de facto "stopper", while the full-backs were tasked with marking the wingers. The tasks of marking were simpler, and being a mirrored array man marking was born. The system was also more dynamic, more balanced and, if played with the right players, was a tactic that for the first time guaranteed control of the "hotspot", the midfield. This was set to four players arranged in a square and involved the use of two midfielders and two mezzepunte. Novo approved the suggestion and based Torino on this tactic.
Novo hired Hungarian manager András Kuttik to replace Tony Cargnelli. Ellena was given a position in centre midfield, a role he previously held at Fiorentina, until then the only Italian club to experiment with the tactic, albeit with little success. The change of tactic also interested Italy manager Vittorio Pozzo, who had already begun to shape his own national side on his "block", Torino.
The 1941–42 season was the prerogative of Roma. That year, two losses proved to be Torino's undoing: a first round exit in the Coppa Italia and a Serie A loss with three matches remaining against Venezia, which was led by Ezio Loik and Valentino Mazzola.
1941–1943
The Torino squad of 1941–42 was a team then very competitive and tested but, as mentioned, the two capitulations that cost participation in the Coppa Italia and the league title ambitions happen all against the same team, the Valentino Mazzola- and Ezio Loik-led Venezia.The first is an excellent playmaker, the second a fast winger; both are already staples of the Italy of Vittorio Pozzo. Novo senses they are the cherries that are missing from the cake to make the team unbeatable. At the end of a Venezia-Torino, third last of the championship, which in practice puts an end to the dreams of the tricolor granata, Novo went to the locker room and directly purchased the two, that will end up costing 1,400,000 liras together, along with two other players.
A curious detail: on the trail of the two was also Juventus, who were followed by Virginio Rosetta, and deal with the Bianconeri seemed almost on the verge of being concluded. The dynamism of Novo thwarted the plan of the cousins and acquired the two cherries that were missing. Thus was born the eleven destined to be remembered as the Grande Torino.
At the start of the 1942–43 season, available to Hungarian Kuttik, there's a squad that includes top players: experts goalkeepers Bodoira and Cavalli; defenders of expertise such as Ferrini, Ellena and quality like Piacentini and Cassano; in midfield the veterans Baldi and Gallea, with the new Ezio Loik and Mazzola; forward Menti and Ferraris, without forgetting Gabetto and Ossola.
On paper Torino is the team to beat, but the departure is not the best: the Bull is to compete with surprise Livorno. This duel creates a thrilling championship, solved only on the final day when Torino, with a goal of Mazzola, sunk Bari.
Torino also managed to win the Coppa Italia against their "terrible" Venezia of the year before and became the first team to hit the "double". The game is played in Milan and the Granata, thanks to a brace from Gabetto and goals from Mazzola and Ferraris II, get the win with a resounding 4–0.
The championship of war 1944
In 1944 Italy, now devastated by war, is broken in two by the Gothic Line. The fascist regime fell, the US military advanced in the south of the peninsula. Yet the league goes ahead and, at the decision of the Federation, was organised into a group stage. Transfers are however difficult since the bombing of the Allies, often interrupting rail links, forcing travelers to face long walking.To prevent the risk of call to arms, many teams are ingenious: with clever diplomacy, they ensure their players are part of the most important industries in the country, by passing them as indispensable to the national production of the defence industry, managing effectively to exempt them from use on the front. The Torino of Novo found such a collaboration with FIAT, creating the FIAT Torino, a name similar to that of a corporate structure: in fact, Mazzola and the other, for the sake of appearances, are in fact classified as workers in the automobile of the Agnelli; some photos of that portray them on the lathe and machine tools. The cousins of Juventus, moreover, similarly had emigrated in turn to Alba to the Cisitalia, a car factory belonging to the then Juventus president Piero Dusio.
In Torino play the goalkeeper Luigi Griffanti, from the national team, taken from Fiorentina, and the Vercellese Silvio Piola, a striker coming from Lazio, who came to the North to take his family to the Capital, and instead remained stuck in Upper Italy due to the armistice.
In the championship of war played to the north, in the first group stage, Torino was inserted in the group Ligure-Piemontese. The team beat 7–1 Genoa and Biella, 7–0 Alexandria, for the 8–2 Novara and Juventus 5–0. In the semifinal round Torino faced Ambrosiana-Inter, Varese and Juventus; the derby concluded in a 1–3 defeat and a 3–3 draw, then comes the victory against Inter, thus giving way to the final round of three – along with Spezia Calcio and Venezia – which is played at Arena Civica in Milan.
Torino would eventually lose tournament, due in part to an unofficial match of the national team, organised for propaganda purposes, held in Trieste two days before the game against Spezia Calcio. Despite the trip made difficult by the operations of war, the president Novo, underestimating their opponents, rejects the proposal of the Federation to postpone the match against Spezia Calcio who, fresher, leave Milan. The "Fire Brigade", which came from the 1–1 draw against Venice, in the decisive match prevail 2–1, thus making unnecessary the subsequent victory of the Granata at Venezia 5–2.
The Spezia Calcio title was officially recognised by FIGC in 2002 as decoration.
Following the decision of FIGC in 2002, Spezia is authorized by the Italian Federation to exhibit a tricolour badge on the official jerseys which is unique, being the only example of a permanent one in Italy. The badge has a different shape and size compared to the ordinary Scudetto.