viola nation 
26-04-2024 11:57
26-04-2024 11:57
Friday Poll: Should Fiorentina cash in on Nico González?
It was clear before Atalanta unceremoniously shoved Fiorentina out of the Coppa Italia on Wednesday, but it’s even more obvious now: the Viola are preparing to tear the team down to the studs this summer. Vincenzo Italiano and Nicolás Burdisso are moving on. Joe Barone is gone, which is still impossible to really process. A third of the first team regulars are out of contract. The club is going to look very different at the start of next season, both on the pitch and off it.
With so much change incoming, Daniele Pradè and the rest of the brain trust may decide to start from scratch, prioritizing youngsters and allowing the team to grow organically. While that’s fun in a Football Manager sort of way, it could also signal the exit of some of the senior players. Especially if Fiorentina finishes outside of Europe, it may need to sell to fund the summer transfer window.
The most saleable asset is, of course, Nicolás Iván González. At 26 years old, he’s a regular for Argentina and boasts physical and technical gifts that make him an extremely appealing target for big money teams. He’s proven that he can score goals in a top European league and in continental competition, and his positional versatility means he can fit into various tactical setups. He’s previously drawn interest from England (Brighton and Brentford in particular) and would likely net Fiorentina somewhere in the neighborhood of €40 million.
The question, of course, is whether that kind of money is worth it. As we’ve seen over the past couple years, Fiorentina’s attack collapses without González as its focal point. Losing him for substantially less than the previous pillars of the attack (Federico Chiesa and Dušan Vlahović) would be a bitter pill to swallow, especially for a club that’s prided itself on wringing every last cent on player sales.
I can see both sides. On the one hand, selling your best player is never good, especially since Fiorentina’s ability to identify and purchase quality attackers has been, hm, uneven since Commisso bought the club. Nico comes with a track record of success, and his work ethic and charisma make him an important part of the team’s emotional fabric, too. The Viola are unlikely to find a player of equivalent value on the market, so losing this one could spell doom for the club’s ambitions.
On the other hand, if you’re going to strip it all down and start the rebuild, there’s no sense in taking half measures. You might as well rip off that band-aid, suffer the pain, and let those young players grow into their responsibilities right away. I still think, for example, that signing Franck Ribery slowed the development of Federico Chiesa and Gaetano Castrovilli, as the team had to be built around the French veteran to their detriment.
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With so much change incoming, Daniele Pradè and the rest of the brain trust may decide to start from scratch, prioritizing youngsters and allowing the team to grow organically. While that’s fun in a Football Manager sort of way, it could also signal the exit of some of the senior players. Especially if Fiorentina finishes outside of Europe, it may need to sell to fund the summer transfer window.
The most saleable asset is, of course, Nicolás Iván González. At 26 years old, he’s a regular for Argentina and boasts physical and technical gifts that make him an extremely appealing target for big money teams. He’s proven that he can score goals in a top European league and in continental competition, and his positional versatility means he can fit into various tactical setups. He’s previously drawn interest from England (Brighton and Brentford in particular) and would likely net Fiorentina somewhere in the neighborhood of €40 million.
The question, of course, is whether that kind of money is worth it. As we’ve seen over the past couple years, Fiorentina’s attack collapses without González as its focal point. Losing him for substantially less than the previous pillars of the attack (Federico Chiesa and Dušan Vlahović) would be a bitter pill to swallow, especially for a club that’s prided itself on wringing every last cent on player sales.
I can see both sides. On the one hand, selling your best player is never good, especially since Fiorentina’s ability to identify and purchase quality attackers has been, hm, uneven since Commisso bought the club. Nico comes with a track record of success, and his work ethic and charisma make him an important part of the team’s emotional fabric, too. The Viola are unlikely to find a player of equivalent value on the market, so losing this one could spell doom for the club’s ambitions.
On the other hand, if you’re going to strip it all down and start the rebuild, there’s no sense in taking half measures. You might as well rip off that band-aid, suffer the pain, and let those young players grow into their responsibilities right away. I still think, for example, that signing Franck Ribery slowed the development of Federico Chiesa and Gaetano Castrovilli, as the team had to be built around the French veteran to their detriment.
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