Getty Images
The Della Valle brothers should build Paulo Sousa a statue!
That could have been a nice way to be thankful for the great job that he’s been doing, something that no one had ever achieved at the Franchi before. He started the season with an average group of players, losing the likes of Mohamed Salah, Stefan Savic, Mario Gomez, Joaquin and David Pizarro, who were in the squad last term.
Under the Portuguese manager, Fiorentina became a perfect machine. For at least 15 games they were playing the most attractive football of the league and he turned lead into gold (sometimes silver) with the likes of Matias Vecino and Facundo Roncaglia. Sousa is also the one who deserves credit for the acquisition of Nikola Kalinic.
Results have been great too. Fiorentina sit 3rd even if at the beginning of the season everyone though that Juventus, Napoli, Inter, Milan, Roma and Lazio had better teams than La Viola.
Florentines have been falling in love with their manager, despite his past as a Juventus player. And we’ve been also captured by the work and the style of the Portuguese tactician.
Oddly, while imagining the marble block on its way to Florence, we found out that the Della Valle brothers are furious with Paulo Sousa instead!
Those rumors were suggested by some journalists who are usually very informed about everything going on inside Fiorentina’s control room, so we take for granted that these speculations are true.
They are angry with Sousa because he was so bold as to criticize the club’s ridiculous winter transfer window and they want him to apologize as soon as possible. The Della Valle brothers are even thinking about sacking him!
The reason why Paulo Sousa is upset, as we’ve previously mentioned, is Fiorentina’s strategy in the repair market. The board knew the team needed a reliable central defender, but they took five months to sign Yohan Benalouane from Leicester in the deadline day and they haven’t strengthen a team that is battling it out for a Champions League placement as one would have expect.
Now, we don’t want to meddle in the Della Valle’s affairs, but we would have expect something more from the January window instead of a stingy Lotito-style repair market.
The Della Valle brothers want to know why the team are not in shape since the beginning of January. Well, even a baby could explain that. The reason is that Fiorentina don’t have enough players in their squad. Paulo Sousa should be given the chance of rotating more players.
They also point out that Paulo Sousa is doing exactly what both Prandelli and Motenlla had done before him, but they forgot to mention that also the previous two manager had had the same problems with La viola’s owners. Were they all crazy?
Since when we’ve learned that Paulo Sousa could be sacked, we are not thinking anymore about the block of marble, on the other hand we feel like our stomach is blocked instead. Is it possible that most of Italian presidents kill the fans’ dreams?
Luckily enough, Fiorentina supporters are backing the right one in this story: Paulo Sousa. Well, it seems that the Della Valle also dislike this harmony between manager and fans.
Is that envy? Is that fear? Who knows. Maybe, in the meantime, someone is really building Paulo Sousa the statue that he deserves.
Stefano Agresti, translated by Lorenzo Bettoni
