Failed signings, fan fury and resignations: how Fiorentina became a crisis club | Nicky Bandini

Daniele Pradè had described Fiorentina v Lecce as a “question of life or death”, but as the occasion approached he remembered football’s third option: you can always just walk away. On Saturday, a little more than 24 hours before this game was due to take place, he left his role as sporting director of the Viola by mutual consent.

The timing was a surprise, but not the decision. Fiorentina had made a shockingly poor start to the season, collecting four points from their first nine games, and Pradè was adamant that he alone should shoulder the blame. “The club put €90m at my disposal to build the team,” he pointed out last month. “If anyone is responsible for the current situation, it’s me.”

Those words were intended as a shield to the manager, Stefano Pioli. Perhaps even Pradè’s actions this weekend represented one last attempt at protection: not so much stepping away as in front of the metaphorical bullet he saw flying toward them. A series of banners had been hung around Florence by ultras on Saturday, bearing such messages as “team, manager, club: you are the shame of this city.”

Pradè’s self-sacrifice could not suffice to temper all this anger. The only real chance Pioli had to save his job was to start winning games, but instead his team were beaten again on Sunday, losing 1-0 to Lecce. Their newly-promoted opponents scored early through Medon Berisha, then leaned on some excellent goalkeeping by Wladimiro Falcone – who denied Moise Kean more than once at the other end.

Fiorentina were awarded a penalty in the 84th minute, only to have it taken away by a contentious VAR review. The first replays showed Luca Ranieri kicking his own heel before falling inside the box, but another angle showed Santiago Pierotti’s knee appearing to catch his calf while applying pressure, causing him to lose balance first.

Tensions spilled over. Ranieri was seen screaming into the face of the fourth official, warning that if the penalty wasn’t given he was about to make a scene. Still, the greater fury seemed to belong to supporters. Inside the stadium they chanted for Pioli’s sacking. Outside, thousands gathered at the exits used by players and directors for an organised protest featuring drums, megaphones and fireworks.

Pioli has not yet been sacked, though that news may arrive imminently. Four draws and six defeats in 10 games is an unacceptable return for a club who finished sixth last season. The manager’s own stated ambitions, when he signed a three-year contract to succeed Raffaele Palladino this summer, were to get the team back into the Champions League and win trophies. Not necessarily this season, but that was the intended direction.

How did things unravel so fast? Pioli’s return was greeted with cautious optimism, a manager who had been here before and achieved a creditable top-half finish in 2017-18 before leaving to win a league title with Milan. Pradè’s subsequent transfer campaign made ambitious goals appear plausible.

Fiorentina were already upwardly mobile. They finished sixth under Palladino last season, collecting 3-0 wins over both Inter and Juventus along the way, and reached the semi-finals of the Europa Conference League (admittedly a step backwards there, after finishing as runners-up in both the previous two years).

In the birthplace of the Renaissance, entire careers were being remade. Kean enjoyed the best season of his career in 2024-25, finishing as Serie A’s second-top scorer on 19 goals. Robin Gosens was once more the marauding wing-back we saw for Atalanta at the start of the decade, earning his first Germany cap in almost a year. David de Gea made save after save (after save).

Fiorentina’s head coach Stefano Pioli issues instructions to his players: fans called for his sacking during the game against Lecce. Photograph: Marco Bucco/La Presse/Shutterstock

Did Palladino’s exit end all that progress? His departure in the summer came as a surprise, the manager walking away from a newly-extended contract despite not having another job offer waiting. He offered some insight into his decision during an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport in September, saying: “I view football as a puzzle, all the pieces need to fit together for things to function. I’m proud of the work we did in Florence, but the conditions weren’t right to continue. Our ideas and vision were too far apart.”

Fiorentina’s players had been as wrongfooted as anyone by Palladino’s departure, inundating him with heartfelt video messages that moved him to tears. Pioli, it would appear, has not been able to connect with them in the same way.

The new faces brought in by Pradè have also fallen short of expectations. Roberto Piccoli, the young striker signed from Cagliari for €25m, made his Italy debut this autumn but is yet to score for Fiorentina. So is Edin Dzeko, who joined on a free transfer but became one of the club’s highest-paid players. The Switzerland international Simon Sohm, purchased from Parma, has not played a full game since the opening weekend.

There is no single explanation for all these failures. Pioli has not made drastic tactical changes, relying often on a variation on a 3-4-2-1 that Palladino also used. Perhaps the sheer number of new faces has caused a degree of confusion – the manager himself said at one point in the summer that a bloated squad could create problems – but the core of the team remains. Yet performances have been unrecognisable.

If anything, Pioli has been fortunate to last this long. Many believed the writing was on the wall just over a week ago, when his team appeared to be losing 3-0 at home to Bologna. But then a VAR decision overturned the third goal, and one of those magical footballing momentum swings arrived to turn the result into an unlikely 2-2 draw. De Gea later confessed that he had thought at one point that “we were going to lose 6-0”.

A phrase that somehow captures the rudderless feeling of this moment: a club spinning out of control. Pradè sought to do the honourable thing by standing down, but his departure leaves a void of leadership, with the owner Rocco Commisso currently in the United States, where he underwent back surgery last month.

Momentum has slowed off the pitch as well as on it. Ongoing renovations to the Stadio Artemio Franchi will now reportedly not be completed in time for centenary celebrations next year. In a recent statement the club declared itself to be “disappointed and surprised” at these developments.

Contrary to Pradè’s assertion last week, the game against Lecce was never really a matter of life or death. There are still 28 matches left this season – plenty enough, in theory at least, for a new manager to put a talented squad back on track. The more troubling observation for Fiorentina is that, even replacing their manager and sporting director might not resolve the underlying conditions that are holding them back.