Fiorentina file
Like the Premier League the top of the sere a is tight with Napoli leading, Juve second, Fiorentina third and Inter fourth. After a couple of defeats to Lazio and Milan, Fiorentina put their season on track with a solid win over Torino last Sunday morning ( 2-0).
We have strengthened the squad with Tino Costa from Genoa, Mauro Zarate from West Ham and Christian Telo from Barcalona. Nowadays 11 is not enough with loss of form, injuries, suspensions and more games in Europe you really need (22) and we were worried about the depth of the squad to challenge. Rossi who never really got over 4 knee injuries but is only 27 has left for Levante and I still think we need more up front.
Fiorentina have done well selling to the Premier league. Nastasic, Jovetic went to Manchester City and Caudrado to Chelsea, all for £70m and none made much of an impact. Conversely Alonso(Bolton), Borja Valero (WBA) and Kalininic (Blackburn) all performed better for us. We National Rusters spend much time emailing to one another and I was commiserating with Alan over Fulham’s demise. I was surprised by the passivity of Fulham fans. Viola fans would be making life much more diffcult for the owners and players. We had a problem like Ross MacCormack with Mohammed Salah who did well for us on loan from Chelsea but fell out with us when we tried, as was our option, to sign him permanently. Eventually he went to Roma where his lack of form was a contributory factor in Rudi Garcia getting the sack. So Ross MacCormack might just find that his disloyalty does not further his career. Maybe we fans are, as you say the mugs for our loyalty, but you can understand our displeasure when a player shows no support for his team and is unconcerned that he is under contract.
As you may know serie a only has 3 Champions League places and we hope for the third season Fiorentina does not finish fourth to qualify for the Europa League. Talking of which we play Spurs in that competition this month as we did last year. It will be an intriguing as Spurs are stronger under Pochettino with a young side full of potential. Sometime ago I accepted an invitation to a private view of the Sistine Chapel curated by the art historian Martin Gayford, who wrote an excellent biography of Michelangelo, a Florentine who spent 20 years in Rome. Another Florentine in art, will be in the eternal City and missing the second leg of the fixture and searching for a sports bar in an hostile milieu.
