Fiorentina file

Its been a good week for La Viola disposing of Tottenham in the Europa Cup and then beating Inter in the San Siro.

Spurs had an early chance when Salgado and Chadli were two on keeper Neto but the pass between them was too casual. After that Gomez and then Chelsea loanee Salah scored, his fourth in six games, to put the North London side out.  Fiorentina were the superior side tactically and coach Montella having publicised his ambitions of working in the Premier did them no harm.

Inter have declined since winning the scudetto three times in succession and the Champions League under Mourinho but they are still diffcult to beat in the San Siro. Roberto Mancini is back at the helm but Salah scored the only goal in a game in which we finished with 9 men.

I was hoping the Europa draw would produce more diverting and less difficult  opposition than Roma but we put them out of the Coppa. On Thursday we play our great rivals Juventus in the Coppa semis. In the league we may be able to overhaul Napoli who we still have to play at Florence for a champions league berth.

The big story in serie a is the decline of Parma, a team in  its heyday that won the old UEFA Cup twice. Their financial position is so dire that players had to drive to away games as they can’t afford a coach, they cannot play home games because they can’t pay for security. It’s a sad story of the demise of a once great club but their story is hardly unique. Fiorentina were demoted to the bottom league for financial irregularities but we are now a solid club financially with £26m banked for Causdrado.

Finally, I add my own book recommendation.

This is Death in Florence by Mario Vichi. It’s set in Florence in 1966 and is murder mystery featuring Inspector Bordelli.  It’s an excellent detective story, refers to the dark days of Italian fascism in whch we in Florence played an ignoble role when the Nazis  sprung Mussolini and set up up a puppet Republic. Most of all it reprises a Florence of the sixties I  remember.