Fiorentina will ultimately have waited only three matchdays before changing managers again. After the dismissal of Fabio Grosso, made official on Sunday evening, the Italian club chose a solution that was as spectacular as it was familiar: Paolo Vanoli takes back the reins of the first team.
The 54-year-old coach had nevertheless left Florence just a few months earlier. Having arrived last November to replace Stefano Pioli, Vanoli had taken over a Fiorentina side sitting bottom of the table, with just four points after the first ten matchdays. He then managed to secure survival, while also leading the club to the quarter-finals of the Conference League.
Grosso lasted just three matchdays
The Fabio Grosso gamble will therefore have been particularly short-lived. Appointed in June to succeed Vanoli, the former 2006 world champion failed to win any of his first three Serie A matches.
Fiorentina lost 4-0 to Roma, 3-0 to Frosinone, then 2-1 to Torino. The tally: zero points, just one goal scored and nine conceded. The Florentine club was thus sitting bottom of the league table at the moment the decision was made.
Grosso also becomes the first manager to be sacked this season in any of Europe's five major leagues.
Vanoli finds a squad that has been deeply transformed
The challenge will however be different from that of last season. Vanoli knows the environment, but the squad has changed considerably over the summer. Very few players from his first spell are still there, which will force him to quickly rebuild his bearings.
The coach nevertheless has a considerable advantage: he already knows what a rescue mission at Florence entails. Last season, he picked up 29 points from the 19 league matchdays played after his arrival, allowing the club to gradually pull out of the relegation zone.
A revenge for Vanoli?
Vanoli's return also carries symbolic weight. Despite his work last season, the coach was not kept on. The club's management had preferred to bet on Grosso to launch a new project.
Three months later, the choice has been reversed.
Vanoli has already led his first training session at the Viola Park and will have very little time to prepare for his return to competition. Fiorentina will travel to Venezia on Friday, aiming to finally pick up their first points of the season.
The message sent by Fiorentina is therefore clear: the club is no longer looking to build for the long term, at least for now. It wants first and foremost to escape the emergency. And to do that, it has recalled the man who had already managed to do so once before.
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