How Vanoli went from unlikely candidate to Fiorentina favourite

Paolo Vanoli was out of the running for the Fiorentina job on Monday evening, but this is what went wrong with Roberto D’Aversa and turned Vanoli into the favourite.

As we had explained on Monday following the decision to fire Stefano Pioli, Vanoli was pushed down the pecking order, overtaken by D’Aversa, who travelled towards Florence.

The agreement was total, a contract until June 2026 with option to extend if Serie A security was guaranteed.

Vanoli suddenly surged to top of Fiorentina list

D’Aversa had been asked to wait for the announcement of Pioli’s sacking first, so that they could then proceed to the contracts. So what happened?

There were some social media grumbles, building to a protest, and this mood made the difference in an already tense atmosphere with the fans.

Perhaps there were other motivations too that we won’t get into here.

What we can say is that there was a financial agreement on terms with D’Aversa, but at 11am yesterday he was informed that a new coach would not be chosen yet, as they were handing the reins to caretaker Daniele Galloppa.

Following that turning point, Vanoli went from ‘out of the running’ on Monday to becoming the favourite for the role, as revealed by Sportitalia at 18.37 on Wednesday.

It’s not over yet, because seeing as Vanoli still needs to terminate his existing contract with Torino, Galloppa will be on the bench against Mainz tomorrow in the Conference League, and there are some in the locker room who are nostalgic for Raffaele Palladino, let’s wait until pen is put to paper before declaring anything a done deal.