Fiorentina file

Not too many Viola fans are filled with optimism for his season. We have bought in the Columbian Claudio Sanchez as an enforcer and Maxi Oliveira an Uruguayan left back from Penarol. The biggest transfer however has been in the opposite direction: Alonso for 25m euros to Chelsea. This is an unbelievable deal as he came to us as free agent in 2013 and was hardly that impressive for Bolton or Sunderland. He is a useful, competent serie a player who would be a squad player for Juventus so it’s a incredibly high fee. Let’s hope some of it will be invested in players.

Fiorentina have always done clever business with Premier Clubs. Stefan Jovetic, whom we tried to re-sign, and Nastasic were sold to Manchester City for 45m euros and made little impact, Caudrado went to Chelsea for 30m euros and was almost immediately loaned to Juve. Conversely Alonso, Valero at WBA and Pizarro at Manchester City did not set the world alight for them but made huge contributions to the Viola cause.

The one area of hope is in youth. Federico Bernardeschi isn’t in the national squad and another Federcio, Chiesa – the son of Enrico a distinguished forward for Viola and others – started against Juve. We also have the son of an even more legendary player Georghio Hagi in our youth set up. We lost our first game v Juve who (it hurts me to say) were the better side and surely will retain the scudettto and beat Chievo. These results indicative of a side who will not trouble the big boys but will overcome the weaker sides reflect a mid table side. The absence of signings will indicate to coach Sousa and our volatile expectant fans that the club is lacking in ambition.