What do you put your struggles down to this season? Is it literally just the case of transitioning from one build to the next, or has something more substantial gone wrong in Fiorenza?
Also out of interest, how have you found the Commissos’ ownership overall? - I’ve been following from afar the developments of the two modern-day iterations of the New York Cosmos, and whilst they got off to a great start in the NASL, they got a lot of things wrong there, definitely a mixed bag, so I’d be interested to know how they’ve done with you guys.
Ah, where to start! We've had so many components going wrong both on and off the pitch, starting a few years ago and the dramatically failing in the first half of this season. Now I feel we're starting a positive rebuild and results starting to improve. I'll try to summarise in the 2 parts:
On pitch: Disastrous early preparation with ex-manager Pioli - lack of fitness, pace and intensity, wrong formation, too many individuals not playing as team and half squad are fringe players not good enough, despite spending £90 million on squad. Compounded by much-criticized transfer Director, Prade, who often sold our best talents e.g. Kayode to Brentford, got rid of last seasons' better players including all our wingers (without replacing them!), pays over the odds or incoming loans of inferior players.
Pioli + Prade are sent packing but damage done and are bottom in November and big players like De Gea and Kean are underperforming compared to last season. New manager Vanoli comes in and does ok, trying to repair things - crucially fitness, formation and psychology as players looked shell-shocked from too many individual errors and not used to relegation battle. January turning point with arrival of Paratici (sporting director) from Spurs and signing wingers e.g. Solomon and confidence from our young talents e.g. Parisi, Ranieri + Fagioli.
Off pitch: American (Commisso) ownership has been a mixed bag and split opinion with fans;
Positives - financial security, reaching 3 consecutive Cup finals/Euro qualification, modern approach with off field activities e.g. shops, website, socials/media, built world-class £100 million training centre and tried to build brand new stadium (but rejected due to Italian bureaucracy!)
Negatives - perception that despite investing, the family could have spent more on players instead of infrastructure, arrogant comments implying fans are the problem, that we can't invest due to FFP and we should be grateful (when we seem to be overtaken by teams like Bologna, Atalanta and Como) and crucially a conveyor belt of inadequate players.
It's also been a terrible few years with tragedy for the club. Captain Astori's death, then the death of general manager Joe Barone two years ago, the collapse of Bove on pitch (who was sensational for us and we wish him well now at Watford) followed by the death of owner Commisso this season. His wife and son, Joseph Commisso have vowed to continue his work, but many fans want a change of ownership.
Tough times but always hopeful - Sorry for long post but a heck of a lot has happened!
USA
