Fiorentina Update
A mid season press conference was called today at Artemio Franchi, with Fiorentina chairman Bert Ernie and manager Stefano Poli both in attendance.
It was Bert Ernie who did most of the talking as he gave his thoughts on the first 5 months of the season. Ernie was quick to praise his manager for Fiorentina's strong start to the league campaign, winning 3 of their opening 4 games in Serie A, including a big 2-1 win over Inter.
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However, the club then went on a disastrous run, failing to win any of their following 7 games which saw them quickly fall into the bottom half of the table. That run did however, include respectable draws with title challengers Juventus and Napoli, although there were also very disappointing losses to the likes of Spal and Crotone. Ernie admitted that he'd had to call an urgent meeting with Poli at this stage and was quite open about the ultimatum that was given to his manager. The message was simple....'turn this around fast or you're done'.
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The message seemed to have an immediate impact as Poli then led the side to back to back victories against Sassuolo and AC Milan, before then going on another run of 4 games without winning (which included the club being knocked out of the Italian Cup at the 1st round stage by Crotone). Things have picked up again though with 2 more wins at the end of the year, as Fiorentina beat both Udinese and Cagliari by a score of 2-1.
This sees Fiorentina currently occupying 7th place in Serie A, the exact position the media predicted them to finish in at the end of the season. Based on this, Ernie confirmed that for now Poli is safe in his role as manager, although he would like to see more consistency from here on out.
With regards to the players, Ernie said he was disappointed with the lack of involvement of the players that the club spent money on last Summer. Goalkeeper Alban Lafont, left back Aaron and attacking midfielder Dennis Man have only managed 11 starts between them so far this season!
The club's top goalscorer so far this season is Diego Falcinelli (on loan from Sassuolo), finding the net 6 times. Falcinelli has also recorded the highest average rating for the club this season at 7.17.
Players now transfer listed...
Bruno Gaspar - Asking price £1.9 million (SOLD)
Sebastian Crisoforo - Asking price £4.6 million
Jordan Veretout - Asing price £3.7 million
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