Football Season Guide

For the second season in a row, Fiorentina found themselves with a bitter taste in their mouths. In fact, while they finished once more 8th in the domestic league, they were left with no silverware again, despite playing another Conference League final, which they lost to Olympiacos, and failing to play another Coppa Italia final, they lost to Atalanta in the semis. Overall, Fiorentina had a good season but, possibly due to fatigue and coach Vincenzo Italiano’s excessive turnover, they too often faced short crises, which cost them heavy defeats and made it impossible for them to make a quantum leap. Logically enough, at the end of a triennium characterized by too many regrets as it could have brought them much more than it actually did, Fiorentina parted ways with Italiano and hired Raffaele Palladino, coming off two positive seasons at Monza. Fiorentina were very busy in the transfer campaign, with several of their stars leaving. In the heart of the defence, Milenkovic left for good money and he will be replaced by Pongracic, who did very well at Lecce. The midfield undoubtedly was the area where they changed the most, though, with the likes of Arthur, Duncan, Bonaventura, Castrovilli and Lopez all departing. So far, attacking midfielder Colpani is the sole to have arrived, having shown wonders especially in his first year in Monza. The likes of Amrabat and Sabiri, all returning from loans, do not seem likely to have a future at the club, while youngster Bianco has chances of acting as back-up. More midfielders are desperately needed and soon. The attack lost Belotti, who was sent back to Roma and will not be missed, having scored only 4 goals overall. Kean arrived from Juventus but he is not very prolific and, anyway, that is another area where they are still under-manned, also considering that Beltran did better as an attacking midfielder rather than a striker. Last but not least, they could be losing another key player in winger Gonzalez, another problem which would have to be solved.