D. Pradè had labeled the Viola fixture against Lecce as a “matter of life or death,” yet as the occasion drew near, he considered football’s third option: you can always just walk away. On the weekend, a little more than 24 hours before the scheduled match, he left his position as technical director of the team by mutual consent.
The decision timing was a surprise, yet not the decision. The Florence-based club had made a shockingly disappointing start to the season, collecting only 4 points from their initial nine matches, and the director was adamant that he alone should shoulder the blame. “The management put €90m at my disposal to build the team,” he pointed out previously. “If someone is responsible for the current situation, it’s me.”
Those comments were intended as a shield for the coach, S. Pioli. Maybe even his steps this weekend symbolized one final effort at protection: not so much resigning as stepping in front of the figurative bullet he saw heading toward them. A series of banners had been displayed around the city by hardcore fans on that day, displaying such messages as “team, coach, club: you are the shame of this town.”
His self-sacrifice could not be enough to calm all this frustration. The sole genuine opportunity Pioli had to save his position was to start winning games, but on the contrary his team were defeated again on the following day, falling 1-0 to Lecce. Their newly-promoted rivals scored early through M. Berisha, then relied on some superb saves by Wladimiro Falcone – who denied M. Kean more than once at the opposite goal.
The home side were given a penalty in the 84th minute of play, but then had it taken away by a controversial VAR review. The first video clips indicated Luca Ranieri striking his own heel before tumbling inside the box, but a different angle showed Santiago Pierotti’s knee appearing to catch his calf while applying pressure, causing him to lose balance first.
Tensions escalated. Ranieri was seen shouting into the face of the fourth official, threatening that if the foul wasn’t given he was about to cause trouble. Nevertheless, the more intense fury seemed to come from the supporters. Inside the arena they called for the coach’s sacking. Outside, a large crowd gathered at the gates used by footballers and officials for an planned protest featuring percussion, megaphones and fireworks.
The manager has still not been fired, though that announcement may arrive imminently. 4 draws and six defeats in ten games is an unacceptable return for a club who ended up 6th last season. The manager’s own ambitions, when he signed a 3-year contract to replace R. Palladino this off-season, were to get the team back into the Champions League and win trophies. Not specifically this year, but that was the planned path.
In what way did the situation deteriorate so fast? Pioli’s return was greeted with measured hope, a manager who had been here before and secured a respectable top-half finish in the 2017-18 season before leaving to lift a league title with Milan. Pradè’s following recruitment activity made high goals appear achievable.
Fiorentina were already upwardly mobile. They ended in sixth place under Palladino the prior campaign, recording three-nil victories over both Inter Milan and Juventus FC during the season, and reached the last four of the European competition (though a decline there, after finishing as runners-up in both the prior seasons).
In the birthplace of the cultural revival, whole careers were being remade. Kean experienced the best campaign of his career in 2024-25, finishing as Italy’s top division’s second-top scorer on nineteen strikes. Robin Gosens was once more the marauding defender we saw for Atalanta at the beginning of the period, earning his initial Germany appearance in almost a twelve months. D. De Gea made save after save.
Did Palladino’s departure halt all that progress? His departure in the off-season came as a surprise, the coach leaving from a recently renewed agreement even though not having another job offer lined up. He offered some explanation into his choice during an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport in September, saying: “I view football as a puzzle, all the pieces need to align for things to succeed. I’m satisfied of the work we did in the city, but the conditions weren’t suitable to proceed. Our ideas and approach were too far apart.”
Fiorentina’s squad members had been as surprised as anyone by his exit, flooding him with emotional video messages that moved him to tears. The new manager, it would seem, has not been able to bond with them in the same way.
The new additions brought in by Pradè have also underperformed of hopes. R. Piccoli, the young forward signed from Cagliari for €25m, made his Italy debut this fall but is yet to find the net for Fiorentina. So is Edin Dzeko, who arrived on a free transfer but became one of the club’s highest-paid players. The Swiss international S. Sohm, bought from Parma Calcio, has not played a 90 minutes since the opening matchday.
There is not one reason for all these setbacks. Pioli has not made major tactical changes, depending often on a variation of a three-four-two-one formation that Palladino also used. Perhaps the sheer quantity of recent players has created a level of disruption – the coach himself remarked at a certain stage in the pre-season that a bloated roster could cause problems – but the key members of the side stays intact. However performances have been unrecognisable.
If anything, the manager has been lucky to last this long. Many believed the signal was on the evident more than a week ago, when his side seemed to be losing 3-0 at their stadium to Bologna. But then a VAR ruling reversed the third score, and one of those unexpected footballing momentum changes occurred to transform the result into an unlikely 2-2 tie. De Gea afterwards admitted that he had believed at one point that “we were going to be defeated 6-0”.
A saying that in a way describes the directionless feeling of this period: a organization descending into chaos. Pradè sought to do the honourable act by standing down, but his departure creates a vacuum of guidance, with the {owner|