It’s been a few days since Fiorentina sacked Fabio Grosso after 3 straight Serie A defeats. The World Cup Winner was the first manager fired this season, setting up the 10th permanent coaching change of the 7-year Commisso regime. It’s an embarrassingly public misstep for sporting director Fabio Paratici, who was brought on board in the aftermath of Rocco Commisso’s death last year to provide a steady hand on the tiller. The rumors in the immediate aftermath of Grosso’s departure, though, paint a picture
of anything but steadiness.
The writing was already on the wall by the time Torino completed a late comeback to hand Fiorentina its 3rd loss on the bounce. Grosso’s post-match behavior was remarkable: he called his players to stand under the Curva to applaud the fans as if the team had just won. The squad seemed bemused and demoralized but the coach was all smiles. In hindsight, perhaps he knew that his Viola career was all but over and felt nothing but relief.
The root of the problem, as far as I can tell, was the mercato. Paratici splashed out a lot of money but didn’t add any attackers outside of Franco Mastantuono and Mateo Pellegrino until the final 36 hours of the transfer window. Grosso’s success at Sassuolo was built on quality in the wide areas, so relying on a teenage loanee and Albert Guðmundsson was never going to cut it. Even though Alieu Njie, Wilfried Gnonto, and Pedro Gonçalves eventually made their way to the Viola Park, Grosso wasn’t thrilled; his complaints about the roster’s shortcomings were replaced by complaints that he hadn’t had time to get everyone pulling together.
According to reports, Grosso’s frustration with the squad continued throughout his brief tenure. In his final phone call, he called the squad “uncoachable.” Whether he thought the players had a poor attitude or simply didn’t fit together, he didn’t think that Paratici had done right by him and wanted to end his tenure, telling the sporting director that he’d refuse to show up for work the next day if he wasn’t fired. The announcement of his dismissal arrived shortly after.
Even that hasn’t severed the relationship cleanly. Fiorentina is considering legal action against Grosso for failure to perform his duties as coach. Telling an employer that you won’t show up for work is usually a fireable offense, although the specific language in Grosso’s contract isn’t available. The club would rather sack him for cause, of course, because then it wouldn’t have to pay him to sit at home.
Fiorentina, of course, engaged in a similar song and dance with Stefano Pioli not twelve months ago. Pioli didn’t want to resign his post. He’d already done so in 2019, turning down a significant amount of money, and didn’t grant the Viola similar grace the second time around. He also wanted to provide maximum compensation for his technical staff, which is commendable. He and the brass sorted it out after an all-night negotiation that ended with his contract dissolved at the cost of a one-time payout.
Paratici’s desire to slash wages has been at the forefront of his transfer moves. He’s sold 6 of last year’s 10 highest earners and brought in younger, lower-salaried replacements. The prospect of paying Grosso €2.2 million must gnaw at him so badly that he’s willing to risk the financial and reputational hit of a court case in which any number of unseemly details could emerge; keep in mind that Paratici’s no stranger to the legal process after he appealed suspensions at both Juventus and Tottenham Hotspur.
Nobody comes out of this looking good. Grosso didn’t get the players he wanted when he wanted them but he’s a professional and ought to understand that adversity is part of the job. Especially for a coach whose success at Sassuolo was, in hindsight, built on the club’s existing infrastructure rather than his own brilliance, he misjudged how much power he had at Fiorentina. Going public with his irritations rather than keeping them in-house forced him onto a precipice from which the only descent was strong team performances.
Fiorentina, meanwhile, looks very stupid. The exhaustive search to find the right manager for this new project was obviously executed very poorly if that manager has been sacked in September. Returning to Paolo Vanoli, who was eager to continue in the position, underlines just how inefficient the club’s efforts were. Organizational dysfunction makes it harder to generate momentum towards any of the club’s goals. Indeed, the churn instead creates inertia, making it ever more difficult to escape the treadmill of mediocrity on which Fiorentina finds itself.
The biggest loser, though, might be Paratici. His reputation as the ultimate insider, the guy with all the connections within the calcio world, the puppet master who can leverage his relationships with all the game’s power brokers, has taken a big hit this summer. For all the money he’s spent in transfer fees (the most in Fiorentina’s history), the team is yet to win and looks every bit as bad as last year.
At a moment when Fiorentina needs strong characters, institutional stability, and clear-sighted vision, Paratici’s moves so far have done the opposite. There’s plenty of time to turn this season around and Vanoli may well be the man to do it. But Grosso’s dismissal should signal that the honeymoon is over for the DS. This level of mayhem could happen to anyone, sure, but given his recent past, I don’t think Paratici gets the benefit of the doubt anymore.
