As Serie A moves into its final round this weekend, there are few things still to be decided. Juventus won the title weeks ago, and Napoli have also comfortably secured their place in next season’s Champions League. Chievo Verona and Frosinone have long since been relegated, leaving just the third through sixth European places still to be decided as well as one team who will face the drop to Serie B. 

That those teams who could lose their top flight status include Genoa, Empoli, and Udinese may not be a surprise, but joining them is a team you would not even associate with the bottom half of the table, never mind relegation. 

Fiorentina could still be relegated to Serie B on the last day of the campaign. There it is, I’ve said it out loud. It seems unbelievable, but the Viola are just three points ahead of 18th-placed Genoa, the team they play at home this weekend. By Week 24 of the current campaign, the Tuscan side were sitting on the edge of European qualification in eighth place, and no one could have imagined the predicament they now find themselves in. 

They must win versus Genoa to be guaranteed of safety, but will also remain in the division if they lose and Empoli fail to win, or if they lose by one goal and Udinese also lose their final match. It might sound straightforward enough, but Vincenzo Montella has not won a match since his appointment at Fiorentina on April 10.

What’s obvious here is that something monumental has gone wrong. It’s too easy to look to the players or indeed the new coach to find a scapegoat for the problems that have seen this historic club fail to win a match since Feb. 7, as deep-rooted issues are only just coming to a head.

A problem that has plagued this team all season is a lack of a quality midfield. This responsibility lies at the door of sporting director Pantaleo Corvino — who has admittedly made excellent signings in both defense and attack — failing in his attempts to bring in any players who are up to the required level for a club with European ambitions. 

It really doesn't seem like that long ago that #Fiorentina were being talked about as outsiders for the Europa League.
The fact that a set of circumstances that could lead to their relegation on the final day even exists is a disgrace. No wins in 15 games.

— Alasdair Mackenzie (@aksmackenzie) May 19, 2019

Successful clubs in the modern era build everything from the middle of the park, and this is highlighted in the fact the Tuscan club have recorded just eight league victories this term, two less than fellow relegation candidates Udinese and Empoli. An incredible 16 draws from their 37 total matches is what has seen them plummet to the depths of 15th position, this side not able to build credible attacks from a non-existent midfield, nor build a shield in front of the defense as they dropped points unnecessarily. 

Yet there is something deeper still that lies beneath this Annus Horribilis for Fiorentina.  There have been problems between Viola supporters and the club’s billionaire owners Andrea and Diego Della Valle, their willingness to allow the side to stagnate in the interest of frugality causing long-standing tension. Sure, football fans always have high expectations, but Fiorentina’s loyal supporters have only asked that the hierarchy build a squad of players who respect the shirt and perform in a way that will allow them to enjoy watching football inside their stadium again. 

They understand that league titles and trophies are a long way off, yet the owners are resolute in their “self-financing” club model. The Della Valle brothers continue to deny any accusation levelled at them, even though so many former employees have chosen to expose their unprofessional methods. 

Nothing could have prepared even those who follow the club closely for the way in which they attacked former boss Stefano Pioli upon his sacking in April (more on that here), an unforgivable slight on a man who had put his own grief to one side in order to guide the club through the tragedy of captain Davide Astori’s death. 

Make no mistake, results and performances had been mediocre under Pioli, and most were of the opinion that he needed to be fired, certainly by the end of the current campaign. The re-hiring of Vincenzo Montella after his previous spell with the club had ended in 2015 didn’t seem like a bad move on the surface, but this event marked the point where everything began to fall apart at the seams.

One draw and no less than six defeats make up the seven matches under Montella, but the coach is not the root cause of the problem. After such a tragic event just over a year ago, it now seems like Pioli was the man keeping the players together as a squad and helping them through their grief. 

“I feel sorry for Pioli,” current captain German Pezzella told Corriere dello Sport after Montella had been appointed. “For me and for the team he was a fundamental person. Allow me to say this because I spoke to him: I thanked him for what he did for us. 

“When I arrived here I was a different person and player than I am today. I consider myself better from many points of view, in a technical sense but also from a human perspective. To end this way is bad, because I keep telling myself that more could have been done to avoid it.”

Such open and honest comments tell you all you need to know about the effect Pioli’s departure had on the players, and results since speak volumes over how they have struggled to cope without him. The incoming boss could really have been anyone, but this squad have so clearly collectively exhaled when before now Pioli had kept them fighting together. 

The atmosphere of fans protesting against the owners can’t have helped, but the custodians of this football club simply could not be allowed to continue with their antics and not expect any repercussions. 

Whether or not the unthinkable happens to Fiorentina this Sunday, something big must change in order that they recover from this shocking and unexpected crisis.