Fiorentina File

Conscious that not every one in the UK who reads the Rust is as interested in Fiorentina as myself I do try to find a British angle.

Over the last few years the Viola have acquired successfully from Premiership clubs – Alonso, Salah, Borja Valero, Kataniklic, Claudio Sanchez, Pizarro.

Last week Nastasic, whom we sold to Manchester City for 30 million Euros, played for Schalke against them.

In this post I consider VAR.

Two games ago the dreaded happened against Spal. Fiorentina were denied a penalty and from the breakaway Spal scored. The VAR panel asked the referee to reconsider the penalty. He did and Fiorentina scored from it it and the Spal goal was scratched.

Yesterday in a typical eventful Fiorentina v Inter encounter which ended 3-3, Fiorentina had 3 VAR decisions. Two went against us but in the 97th minute we were awarded a penalty.

The replay seemed to show that the ball struck an Inter defender’s chest and then his upper arm. There was no movement of the arm to the ball but the penalty stood. We got a very late equalizer when it was converted. VAR is not ideal, it breaks up the continuity that is one of football’s greatest assets, but it would have eliminated the type of cheating that resulted in handball for the West Ham equalizer against Fulham.

I thought at the time of his appointment Claudio Ranieri, who won the Coppa and Supercoppa with us, would turn around the fortunes of the Cottagers. He has not. Alan Tanner told me there is considerable unrest amongst the Fulham faithful.

The owner and team are lucky it’s not an Italian team. There would be several thousand fans protesting at the training ground. Once when we lost 8-2 to Lazio defender Lippi had his villa destroyed by fans.