Dealing with rejection isn’t easy…just ask a Fiorentina fan. Two seasons ago, they reached the Coppa Italia Final and relinquished an early lead in a 2-1 defeat to Inter, whilst they also lost 2-1 to West Ham in the UEFA Europa Conference League Final courtesy of Jarrod Bowen’s 90th-minute goal.
By Zach Lowy
Last season, Fiorentina looked set to miss out on Europe after an eighth-place finish in Serie A only to be given a reprieve by Juventus’ UEFA ban. After erasing a first-leg deficit and beating Rapid Wien in the UEFA Europa Conference qualifiers, La Viola finished top of their group before beating Maccabi Haifa, Viktoria Plzeň and Club Brugge en route to their second consecutive final in UEFA’s fledgling third tier competition. Having lost to Atalanta in the Coppa Italia semifinals and Napoli in the Supercoppa Italiana semifinal in the previous months, this was their chance to win their first piece of silverware in 23 years.
Once again, the footballing gods subjected Fiorentina to another cruel twist of fate. When it seemed the title would be decided on penalties, Ayoub El Kaabi scored in the 116th minute to snatch a 1-0 victory for Olympiacos, who became the first Greek team ever to win a European trophy. There was no more room for doubt: it was time for a rebuild. Veteran midfielders like Giacomo Bonaventura and Gaetano Castrovilli left on free transfers, defensive talisman Nikola Milenković and top scorer Nicolás González joined Nottingham Forest and Juventus for substantial fees, and coach Vincenzo Italiano left his post after three years at the helm. Enter: Raffaele Palladino.
Palladino only made his managerial debut on September 13, 2022, guiding Monza to a maiden Serie A victory against Juve and leading them to 11th and 12th-place finishes in their first two seasons in Serie A before making the move from Lombardy to Tuscany. And yet, he’s quickly implanted his tactical DNA and steered Fiorentina to a stellar start. After 13 games played, La Viola find themselves on track to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in 16 years.
“Italiano’s Viola won the possession battle in every game, often to their own detriment as opponents dropped into a deep block and picked them off on the break,” said Tito Kohout of the English-language Fiorentina website Viola Nation. “Palladino’s team, on the other hand, is happy to soak up pressure and play on the break, giving the attackers more space to work with. There’s now a willingness to let the players find their own solutions within a tactical framework rather than insisting on mechanical repetitions and hoping something works. That was Italiano’s approach and it dragged Fiorentina back from the brink, but wasn’t fun to watch and became very predictable.”
After spending the past years tightening their pursestrings and budgeting for the construction of the €110 million Viola Park which contains 10 practice fields, two stadia, a swimming pool, and state-of-the-art training and medical facilities, Fiorentina were finally able to spend more than they received in transfer fees and acquire 11 new players in the summer of 2024. Many of these signings were, for lack of a better word, rejects. Danilo Cataldi, Edoardo Bove and Yacine Adli were surplus to requirements at Lazio, Roma, and Milan, but they’ve all found a new lease on life in Fiorentina’s midfield.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and that’s certainly been the case with Moise Kean. Having failed to score in 20 appearances last season for Juventus, Kean has racked up 12 goals and one assist in 15 appearances since heading to Fiorentina. His nine league goals are bettered only by Mateo Retegui (12), while he leads Serie A in Expected Goals (9.1) and Expected Goals on Target (9.8).
Fiorentina are conceding the third-fewest goals per match (0.8) and have the third-most clean sheets (6) in Serie A thanks in large part to the stellar performances of another ‘reject’: David De Gea between the sticks. Despite boasting a decade of experience as Manchester United’s starting goalkeeper, he was forced to spend an entire year as a free agent before finally finding a new club in August. It hasn’t taken long for him to hit top form at the Stadio Artemio Franchi, registering the highest save percentage (82.5%) and the third-most goals prevented (3.0) in Italy.
“Sporting Director Daniele Pradè and Technical Director Roberto Goretti did an amazing job in the window,” said Kouhout. “Because so many players arrived late in the window, there wasn’t much continuity in preseason and Palladino had to build the plane in midair. It was pretty bumpy at the start but it started falling into place against Atalanta. A lot of what Fiorentina is doing on the pitch looks sustainable rather than just being outlier results, so Palladino deserves a ton of credit for the work he’s done integrating the new signings and then changing the entire system just a month into the season.”
After opening the season with five straight draws and a loss at Atalanta, Fiorentina edged Lazio 2-1 before drawing 0-0 at Empoli. Since then, they’ve won 10 of their last 11 matches, the sole exception being a 2-1 defeat at APOEL in the UEFA Europa Conference League on November 7. Palladino has struck the right balance with a 4-2-3-1 formation based on aggressive, man-to-man marking, a high backline, and quick, vertical passing – no team is completing more accurate long balls per match than Fiorentina (27.8). They sit fourth in Serie A, four points behind Napoli, level on 28 points with Inter, Lazio and Atalanta, two above Juventus and six above Milan, with a game in hand on Napoli, Lazio and Juve. We’re only a third of the way into the season, but Fiorentina are on track to finish in the top six for the first time in nine years.
They were looking to secure a ninth straight league win in Sunday’s home match vs. Inter, but the game was suspended after Bove collapsed onto the pitch in the 17th minute. He was hauled away in an ambulance and spent nearly 13 hours in a medically induced coma before being extubated on Monday. Edoardo is awake, alert, and responding to questions, and the first cardiological and neurological tests have ruled out acute damage to the central nervous and cardiorespiratory systems.
Fiorentina fans are accustomed to heartbreak – both on and off the pitch. Club captain Davide Astori and chief executive Joe Barone tragically succumbed to cardiac arrest in March 2018 and March 2024, but as for Bove, he looks set to make a miraculous recovery from his cardiac arrest. And when he does return to the pitch, he’ll be given a hero’s welcome at a club whose supporters have been given more and more reasons to smile.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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