From Tottenham to Tuscany: Fabio Paratici’s Fiorentina Mission
As Fiorentina struggle at the bottom end of Serie A, they have turned to a tried and tested sporting director to help them. Giancarlo Rinaldi examines the task in store for the Spurs man.
It looks a little bit like leaping from a frying pan in London to a Florentine fire. Both Tottenham Hotspur and Fiorentina have become bywords for frustrating underachievement down the years. Nonetheless, Fabio Paratici seems happy to have answered the distress signals coming out of the Stadio Artemio Franchi as the Viola teeter on the brink of relegation in the run-up to their centenary celebrations.
The deal is, in some ways, a marriage of convenience. The sporting director was keen on a return to Italy after about four-and-a-half years in England, while the Tuscan club was in desperate need of an experienced hand as it tried to navigate the choppy waters of the Serie A drop zone. Having ditched Daniele Pradè following a pretty disastrous summer transfer window, they must have jumped at the chance of getting their hands on a man who knows Italy’s top division back to front and inside out.
That is not to say the ex-Juventus man has an easy task ahead of him – quite the opposite. This is the most desperate position the club has found itself in in recent years, and there is almost no margin for error. The passing of President Rocco Commisso has also been a major blow that it will take some time to recover from – time that they do not really have. If Paratici does not hit the ground running, he could well find himself operating in Serie B next season.
Fiorentina have been trying to patch up the damage done in the summer with some acquisitions in the January window – not for nothing known as the mercato di riparazione (the repairs market) in Italy. In has come a player that Paratici knows well, Manor Solomon, on loan from Spurs, along with another acquisition from England, Jack Harrison. The aim, quite clearly, has been to give some width to a side which had so little that it was being forced to use a left-back, Fabiano Parisi, on the right flank. It is to his credit that he has performed very well in a role which is far from one he is accustomed to. Other arrivals have included the versatile Marco Brescianini and Giovanni Fabbian in a bid to keep the team afloat, with Daniele Rugani a late signing to bolster the defence. None of them, in truth, look like transformational acquisitions.
There have been exits too, with Pablo Mari gone and Hans Nicolussi Caviglia, Edin Dzeko and Simon Sohm all shown the door in moves which underline just how disastrously wrong the club got things previously. The new sporting director might well find himself stuck with a few players that the club is unable to move on in January. It will be up to him to work out a way to either find a role for them or pave the way for a summertime exit.
Indeed, that might be the most thorny issue facing Paratici – almost all of the Viola’s summer signings have failed to work out. It is perhaps an under-appreciated quality among fans, but being able to sell well is just as important as flexing your purchasing muscle. There will, after all, be no deals like the one he brokered for Cristiano Ronaldo while at Juventus now that he is back in Serie A.
Another tricky aspect to his job, of course, is the uncertainty of what division the team will even be playing in next season. There have been signs of life of late; nonetheless, Fiorentina remain embroiled in a battle for survival which was totally unexpected. The calibre of player they can hope to attract in Italy’s second tier would be significantly different to those for a top-flight campaign. It would also be a tough ask to retain all of their biggest names should they ultimately be destined for the drop.
The flipside to that is that many of the deals done over January appear to be ones which would see players remain if survival is secured. That might give them commitment to the cause, but it could also see you stuck with a few footballers you might have preferred to move on. Such are the headaches of a sporting director.
Few would envy Paratici the task in store, but he looks like a man more than qualified for the role. If anyone has the expertise and confidence to steer the Viola away from relegatio,n then it is probably him. If he can deliver that, it would be a first step towards winning the hearts and minds of a support which is in a state of turmoil right now. Bringing them a long-awaited trophy – at some later date – could make him a legend.