Rightly or wrongly, Fiorentina’s hopes for the new season already appear to rest upon prolific front-man Giuseppe Rossi who despite managing just 22 Serie A outings has hit an amazing 16 goals since arriving at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in January 2013.
Even with a positive pre-season and young striking duo Federico Bernardeschi and Khouma Babacar looking able deputies for the 28-year-old, a raft of exits along with coach Vincenzo Montella mean a year of transition for the Viola.
Despite finishing a creditable fourth last term ahead of title hopefuls Napoli and reaching the Europa League semi-finals, the aim was clearly to secure Champions League football for the first time since 2009, but capital clubs Roma and Lazio ultimately proved too strong.
Now, with both Milan-based sides having rebuilt underachieving squads for an assault on a top three finish, and possibly the Scudetto, the task could be beyond Fiorentina’s current resources.
Therefore, talk of Champions League qualification will be more muted from Viola fans, but just finishing amongst the European places could also prove a struggle and greater importance put on the Europa League this term.
Outgoings dominated transfer activity in Florence early on, particularly with the amount of experienced striking talent leaving a club who were the lowest scorers of the top six last season.
Alberto Gilardino, as expected, was not retained after his loan spell, but the departure of Mario Gomez on loan to Besiktas was somewhat surprising given the inability to keep the influential Mohamed Salah who has joined rivals Roma.
The Viola were also hit with key departures to their rearguard as goalkeeper Neto chose the Juventus bench rather than sign a contract extension and centre-back Stefan Savic sold to Atletico Madrid.
Arriving from the La Liga club, though, is combative midfielder Mario Suarez which will help with Fiorentina losing the experienced Juan Vargas, David Pizarro and Alberto Aquilani.
Filling the void between the Fiorentina posts is Luigi Sepe, on loan from Napoli, who was exceptional last term while helping Empoli retain Serie A status, and centre-back Davide Astori comes in almost as a like-for-like replacement for Savic.
The Coach – Paulo Sousa
A Serie A player with Juventus and Inter it is unlikely Paulo Sousa will replicate his success in Turin that brought four winners medals – including the 1996 Champions League – despite having already won trophies as a coach in Hungary, Israel and Switzerland.
However, despite early criticism with previous club Basel, the way in which Sousa led them to a sixth consecutive title and out of a difficult Champions League group is reason to be optimistic.
That the Swiss club are so dominant in their homeland the 44-year-old engineering their progress to the Last 16, alongside Real Madrid, ahead of five time winners Liverpool was arguably the bigger achievement.
With a positive attacking approach they defeated the Premier League side 1-0 at home and nearly pulled-off a repeat at Anfield, in a style the Portuguese insists his teams adopt.
A desire to switch players and formations can sometimes confuse, if not infuriate fans, but his bold attacking mindset will entertain, as will a personality more welcoming than the often dour Montella.
Requiring constant movement in midfield, any formation Sousa sets out who will witness full-backs given unlimited freedom to attack and that will hopefully bring the best out of Brazilian Gilberto who has arrived from Botafogo.
Season Expectations
After three seasons under Montella how the Viola perform this term will depend on how well they can adapt to coach Sousa in the wake of so many players who were key to the ‘success’ under the Italian leaving.
With AC Milan and Inter strengthening and the Rome-based clubs retaining the majority of the sides that were by someway ahead of Fiorentina last term it could prove a difficult and frustrating task breaking into the top five come May.
Therefore, given this will be a transitional year for the team, managing to squeeze into the Europe by whatever means necessary should be seen as a success for supporters.
However, they will also be expecting to make a challenge again in both the Coppa Italia and Europa League, even if those commitments hinder their Serie A chances.
Prediction
If they can keep Rossi fit then they may just make European qualification, but unfortunately the squad strength of their competition may prove too much to overcome.
However, a kind fixture list towards the campaign’s close could prove vital to lifting themselves higher in the rankings.
Expected finish: 7th (NB: this is not necessarily Kevin Pogorzelski’s opinion but the average of our editors’ predictions.)
They will finish 3rd or above because now Rossi is fit + Baez is coming from juventud.. For both Milanese teams juventus , romaand Napoli this will be a transitional year after squad overhaul
I respected Lazio last season because they were more of a unit,not star studded..basically I like our low-key transfers,they will give much..I didn’t even think we deserved 4th place in the previous seasons judging by the squad,this year,we even look better..Milan,Inter won’t surprise me,Juve may self-destruct,Roma may not live up to the preseason hype,Napoli,typical of them..Lazio will suffer heavy schedule if they make it thru Bayer..I’m not biased if I say between Beppe,Federico,Khoumar & Nikola,we’d score at least 50goals..Baez on his way too..Forza viola