Nightmare in Tuscany: The reasons behind Fiorentina’s crisis

Bottom of the league without a win, and their sporting director and coach both out the door. Giancarlo Rinaldi wonders if Fiorentina can recover from an abysmal start to their season.

It has been a collapse which few people saw coming. Conference League regulars Fiorentina were meant to challenge for a better European spot this season. Instead, they have got off to the worst-ever league start in their nearly 100-year history.

And yet the summer started swimmingly. The return of Stefano Pioli – a seasoned coach with an emotional attachment to the city – seemed a logical if unspectacular appointment. Across the pitch, a clear strategy of adding depth to the squad in every position also appeared to have given the Viola the ability to cope with the demands of continental and domestic competition. Unfortunately, though, the pitch has provided a pretty damning verdict on what this team is actually worth.

Those who have dined at the Calcio table for a while will remember another Fiorentina side which was dubbed “too good to go down”. That side in 1992/93 included Pioli himself but also Gabriel Batistuta, Brian Laudrup, Stefan Effenberg and Francesco Baiano. The bad news for present-day fans is that that team was actually challenging at the top end of the table before Christmas until it spiralled, incredibly, into Serie B. There is no such good form to collapse from for this particular crop of players in purple.

The warning signs started pretty early with an opening few weeks in Serie A, which were more sluggish than someone sleeping off a grappa-induced hangover. Draws with Cagliari, Torino and Pisa bookended defeats by Napoli and Como. The losses piled up against Roma, Milan and Inter, with only a last-gasp miracle grabbing a point against Bologna. Ten weeks in, and they sit at the bottom of the division with only another good start to the Conference League as consolation.

The sacrifice of sporting director Daniele Pradè appeared too little too late and failed to jolt the side out of the doldrums. Instead, they recorded a woeful home defeat to Lecce which ultimately, after some humming and hawing, led to their coach being shown the door. Pioli was never on fire in Florence this time, he barely managed to produce a puff of smoke.

There are those who feel that people – including the man himself – got carried away after his Scudetto triumph with Milan. They argue that he was an average manager who had one good season before reverting to type. That seems a little harsh, but perhaps his time in Saudi Arabia – where he was reputedly one of the highest paid bosses in the world – meant he had forgotten just how unforgiving the Italian game can be. His colleagues in Serie A are nothing if not tactically prepared and astute – certainly sharp enough to puncture any lofty ambitions being harboured in Tuscany.

Last season’s team was kept largely intact, but perhaps that was part of the problem. Pioli seemed to feel obliged to try out or include some of the new signings from the summer, and they have almost without exception failed to impress. Edin Dzeko has not had the impact hoped for, Roberto Piccoli is currently no replacement for Moise Kean, Jacopo Fazzini has not looked anything like the player he was at Empoli and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia has looked like the slowest member of a very slow midfield alongside Nicolò Fagioli and Cher Ndour.

And last season’s heroes have also been misfiring. Pietro Comuzzo is having a difficult second season trying to confirm his previously outstanding performances. Dodô has been unable to deliver the match-winning displays of the past. Robin Gosens has been struggling with injury, while Rolando Mandragora has often been left on the bench. Even Kean’s goalscoring touch appears to have deserted him. Only David de Gea, probably, and young full-back Niccolò Fortini have been beyond reproach. A defence which is the worst in the division tells its own story.

Even off the pitch, things have not been going well. Delays to restructuring work on the Stadio Artemio Franchi mean it will not be ready for the club’s centenary year in 2026 as had been hoped for, but will drag on until at least 12 months later. It all adds to the impression of an operation which is in more than a little crisis.

The pressure will only mount on these players as the sides all around them were, by and large, set up to fight against relegation, while the Viola were not. They need to roll their sleeves up pretty quickly – starting with a real six-pointer against Genoa – if they hope to fight their way out of this particular hole. President Rocco Commisso needs to get the choice of replacement for Pioli correct if he hopes to turn the tide.

That job falls, in the short-term, to youth team coach Daniele Galloppa while the club weighs up its options. Maybe if they had acted sooner, Luciano Spalletti might have been tempted, but he, of course, has been lured elsewhere. The other names being mentioned include Roberto D’Aversa – perhaps best remembered for headbutting an opposition player in his last act as Lecce boss – who hardly seems an inspired selection. Paolo Vanoli, Alessandro Nesta, Roberto Mancini, Thiago Motta or Daniele De Rossi are others who have been touted.

In truth, though, whoever it is will have his work cut out to put the confidence back into this squad and dig them out of the hole they find themselves in. This group of players is clearly capable of much better than it has currently shown but, with more than a quarter of the season already gone, they need to prove their quality sooner rather than later, or the worst nightmares of the Curva Fiesole could yet be realised.