Daniele Pradè had labeled the Fiorentina game against their opponents as a “question of life or death,” yet as the event approached, he remembered football’s third option: you can always resign. On Saturday, just over 24 hours before the scheduled match, he departed from his role as technical director of the club by mutual consent.
The timing was a surprise, yet not the move itself. The Florence-based club had made a shockingly disappointing beginning to the campaign, gathering only four points from their first 9 matches, and Pradè was adamant that he personally should bear the blame. “The management put €90m at my disposal to assemble the squad,” he pointed out previously. “If anyone is responsible for the current crisis, it’s me.”
Those words were intended as a shield for the coach, Stefano Pioli. Perhaps even his steps this past few days represented one final effort at protection: not so much stepping away as stepping in front of the metaphorical threat he saw heading toward them. A number of signs had been displayed around the city by hardcore fans on Saturday, displaying such messages as “team, manager, organization: you are the disgrace of this city.”
His self-sacrifice could not be enough to temper all this frustration. The only genuine opportunity Pioli had to save his position was to start winning matches, but instead his team were beaten once more on the following day, losing 1-0 to Lecce. Their newly-promoted opponents scored early through M. Berisha, then relied on some superb saves by W. Falcone – who stopped M. Kean more than once at the opposite goal.
Fiorentina were given a spot-kick in the 84th minute, only to have it taken away by a controversial VAR review. The first video clips indicated Luca Ranieri kicking his own heel before falling inside the box, but a different angle revealed S. Pierotti’s knee appearing to catch his lower leg while challenging, leading to him to lose balance first.
Tensions spilled over. The defender was observed shouting into the presence of the fourth official, warning that if the penalty was not awarded he was about to cause trouble. Nevertheless, the greater rage seemed to belong to the fans. Inside the arena they called for Pioli’s sacking. Outside, a large crowd assembled at the gates reserved for players and directors for an organised demonstration featuring percussion, loudspeakers and pyrotechnics.
The manager has still not been fired, although that news may come soon. Four draws and six losses in 10 fixtures is an poor record for a team who finished 6th last season. The manager’s own ambitions, when he signed a three-year contract to succeed Raffaele Palladino this off-season, were to get the squad back into the Champions League and claim trophies. Not specifically this year, but that was the intended path.
How did things deteriorate so quickly? Pioli’s appointment was met with measured hope, a manager who had previous experience and secured a creditable top-half finish in the 2017-18 season before departing to lift a league title with AC Milan. The director’s subsequent transfer campaign made high goals appear achievable.
The club were previously upwardly mobile. They finished sixth under Palladino last season, recording 3-0 wins over both Inter Milan and Juventus along the way, and reached the semi-finals of the European competition (admittedly a step backwards there, after finishing as finalists in both the previous seasons).
In the birthplace of the cultural revival, entire careers were being remade. The striker experienced the best campaign of his professional life in 2024-25, ending as Italy’s top division’s second-highest goal-getter on nineteen goals. Robin Gosens was again the marauding wing-back observed for his former club at the start of the period, securing his first Germany cap in almost a twelve months. David De Gea made stop repeatedly.
Did the previous manager’s departure end all that progress? His exit in the off-season came as a surprise, the coach walking away from a recently renewed contract even though not having another position lined up. He offered some explanation into his decision during an interview with a sports newspaper in September, stating: “I view football as a puzzle, all the pieces need to fit together for things to succeed. I’m satisfied of the effort we did in Florence, but the circumstances weren’t suitable to continue. Our visions and vision were too different.”
The team’s squad members had been as surprised as everyone by his exit, inundating him with emotional recorded clips that moved him to tears. The new manager, it would appear, has not been able to bond with them in the same manner.
The recent faces brought in by Pradè have also fallen short of hopes. R. Piccoli, the promising forward acquired from Cagliari for €25m, made his Italy first appearance this fall but is still not score for the club. So is Edin Dzeko, who arrived on a free transfer but became one of the team’s highest-paid players. The Swiss national team player Simon Sohm, bought from Parma Calcio, has failed to complete a full game since the first matchday.
There is no single reason for all these setbacks. Pioli has avoided major tactical changes, depending often on a variation of a three-four-two-one formation that Palladino also used. Perhaps the sheer quantity of new players has created a degree of disruption – the manager personally said at one point in the summer that a overcrowded roster could create problems – but the key members of the team remains. However performances have been unrecognisable.
If anything, the manager has been fortunate to last this long. Several believed the signal was on the evident more than 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 unexpected footballing momentum swings arrived to turn the outcome into an unlikely 2-2 tie. The goalkeeper afterwards admitted that he had believed at a moment that “we were going to be defeated 6-0”.
A phrase that in a way describes the directionless feeling of this period: a club descending into chaos. Pradè attempted to do the noble act by resigning, but his exit creates a void of guidance, with the {owner|
