Roberto Piccoli has had about as rotten a year as he could’ve, going from Fiorentina’s record signing to expensive afterthought. He’s been linked to various destinations—Lazio, Genoa—but according to Nicolò Schira, Bologna will be his next stop. The framework’s in place for a loan with an option to buy that, if triggered, would net €18 million for the striker. Once Köln closes on Thijs Dallinga, the Oscar Mayers will have the space to kick this one into gear, says Gianluca di Marzio.
I feel bad for
Bobby Smalls. It’s not his fault that Daniele Pradè paid the laughably high sum of €3o million for a guy everyone knew had severe technical limitations. It’s not his fault that he ended up at the most dysfunctional Fiorentina this side of Cecchi Gori, stuck in a system and a role that minimized his good qualities and maximized his bad ones. He’s not a bad player. He was simply the wrong one for Fiorentina last year. So was everyone else.
That said, Piccoli was also obviously done in Florence. Once a player has the reputation as a failure, there’s no changing the narrative. Every little mistake gets very, very loud. Piccoli himself struck a defiant figure but also one who understood that he was making a last stand. Every time he carried the ball directly into touch or let a pass clang off his foot, you could almost see the Petulance Meter filling up.
Of course he could’ve done more. I thought his attitude was often pretty shit as he refused to press with the requisite intensity, allowing opponents to progress the ball from defense into midfield without any resistance. It was a far cry from the bustling physical presence we saw at Cagliari, where he looked well on his way to establishing a strong career as a steady mid-table striker who could, if everything breaks right, become the sort of beloved bomber di provincia, a cult favorite who scores 200 Serie A goals across a lengthy career.
It could still happen, of course. Maybe he finds his feet at Bologna and remembers how to do the basic stuff like dribble and pass. Domenico Tedesco has that Red Bull pedigree and should like a robust striker who has the physical capacity to press and work the channels. The Rossoblu management clearly sees some upside, even though the more likely outcome is that Piccoli lumbers around, scores 11 Serie A goals, and doesn’t irritate anyone.
If this one comes to pass, Paratici deserves some credit for cleaning up the books. €18 million at the end of next year would be just about Piccoli’s book value after a couple years of amortizing that original €30 million fee. Depending on the bonus payments to Cagliari, it could even be a slight plusvalenza, although that’s probably asking too much. It’s not a miracle but it is the sort of move that a competent organization makes to mitigate a previous misstep.
That’s the thing, though. Undoing those previous midsteps is a long and costly process. The DS has been dealt a tricky hand and he’s playing it quite well as far as I can tell. Zeroing out a disaster like the Piccoli purchase isn’t easy. It’s a good reminder of how big a mess even a single bad transfer window can leave a club. The damage isn’t undone: imagine how different Fiorentina’s trajectory would be had that money not gone to a fee for a player who, in hindsight, was doomed from the start. It’s a good reminder, though, that as good as things look right now, they can always take a nosedive before we even notice the ground is fast approaching.
