Well, you can’t say you didn’t see it coming. Pretty much every media outlet has decided that Paulo Sousa will leave Fiorentina at the end of the year (and possibly replace Max Allegri at Juventus, which lol). All things considered, the Portuguese mister has done a perfectly adequate job in replacing Vincenzo Montella, but both he and the team have clearly hit their peaks, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to move on.
Stability is something massively important in football, however, in modern football, there's almost no such thing. Paulo Sousa is incredibly the 6th longest serving manager in Serie A, after being at the helm for just under 2 years. Potential new boss Eusebio Di Francesco, who leads the league, is now approaching his third year in charge of Sassuolo.
Sousa's record so far:
Played 81
Won 38 Draw 20 Lost 23
There has been plenty made of Sousa's failings in recent weeks and his tenure may end as it begun if he somehow manages to land the Juventus job. Which is sure to be controversial, to say the least. On one side it'll be hilarious but with his already, well let's call it unsavory Juventus past, it's sure not going to make him any more popular. It started so well with an early season title challenge and has now gotten to stage where he's left la viola in a worse position than he found them: potentially out of Europe completely.
Pantaleo Corvino is playing it close to the vest thus far, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. The DS claims that he’s not even thinking about Sousa’s contract right now. The deal runs out at the end of this year, and although the Corvine One insists that he won’t talk about the option for another year until next month, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that the principals will part ways.
The burning question, then, is who will replace Sousa? There’s been a seemingly unending procession of replacements, from Maurizio Sarri of Napoli to Eusebio di Francesco of Sassuolo to Rolando Maran of Chievo Verona to Claudio Ranieri of Leicester City to Leonardo Semplici of SPAL to the dang Yeti of Himalayan FC, there’s no shortage of candidates, and that’s hardly a surprise; the Fiorentina job is one of the most prestigious in Italy, and who wouldn’t want to live in Florence?
So who would you like to see as the next Viola manager? If it’s not one of the options we’ve included, let us know in the comments. Heck, even if it is someone we’ve got included, tell us why or why not that candidate should or will be the next man up.