Past ghosts back to haunt Fiorentina?

Shall history repeat itself?

Loyal Fiorentina followers hope it does not. In 1992/93 Fiorentina found themselves in deep relegation trouble despite signing various quality players. The club strengthened their ranks significantly during the summer as they looked to build a strong squad and avoid playing in the Serie B.

But, a series of poor results in that particular season transformed Fiorentina's season into a tough and unsuccessful battle to avoid the drop.

This year, Fiorentina are ranked among the biggest underachievers in the Serie A. Fellow strugglers Parma and Lazio are languishing at the bottom end of the standings but they had parted with their best players to keep afloat financially.

On the contrary, Fiorentina had the financial muscle to sign Fabrizio Miccoli, Christian Obodo, Martin Jorgensen, Enzo Maresca, Hide-toshi Nakata, Tomas Ujfalusi and lately even Valeri Bojinov.

However, despite these expensive signings, Fiorentina never got going. They started under the charge of Emiliano Mondonico, the man who led them to promotion last season.

Club owner Diego Della Valle was rather sceptical on Mondonico. The boss deemed Mondonico lacked experience in top level football, but he still kept faith in him.

With Mondonico on the sidelines, Fiorentina chalked up some decent results but were never convincing in their play. He lasted only seven league games at Florence before handing in his resignation.

Most of the fans thought that without Mondonico, Fiorentina would improve... but they were proved wrong.

Seven points in the first three outings under stand-in coach Sergio Buso - Mondonico's successor - convinced Della Valle to halt his search for a new coach. Buso, whose only previous experience in Serie A was a short stint with Bologna, was confirmed and offered a contract.

But, Fiorentina soon hit rock bottom in a humiliating 0-6 defeat at the hands of Milan on the 15th day. Buso suddenly found that he had his days numbered.

January uncertainties

Uncertainty hovered over the club when the January transfer window opened and various players were linked with a possible move from or to Florence.

In the last week of January, Fiorentina effected yet another change of coach. This time, Della Valle went for a man with a proven track record in the Serie A - Dino Zoff. Results, however, are once more proving the Florence supremo wrong, at least up to now.

Della Valle should be admired for his efforts to put Fiorentina back among the best in Serie A. However, his blunders on the market and constant changes are putting the team in serious jeopardy of losing their status yet again.

Three different coaches over a span of four months is enough proof that Della Valle has failed to identify the right man to start laying the foundations of a prosperous future for the team.

Even when he came to sign players, Della Valle simply went for names and not quality players.

A similar mistake was committed by Fiorentina 12 years ago. That team was based on three players mainly - Gabriel Batistuta, Brian Laudrup and Stefan Effenberg.

They were all expected to spur the team on and challenge for a UEFA Cup berth. In the end, their contribution was not enough to help Fiorentina avoid relegation.

As some may recall, that team was not adequately assembled because it was superb in midfield and attack but with a weak defence.

Like this season, even in 1992/93 Fiorentina had resorted to a change of coach on more than one occasion... but to no avail.

Fiorentina cannot emerge from troubled waters if they don't address the true problems and focus their attention elsewhere. They had a long list of injured players to contend with but this also is not a good enough reason to excuse their position.

The players have to be much more motivated. The dispute which Della Valle has with Italian League Federation president Adriano Galliani about his term in office has to stop.

This squabble seems to have left some negative effects on the team as well.

It is already very difficult for Fiorentina to cope with their precarious league position because they do not have enough spirit and determination so useful in desperate relegation battles.

The road to salvation is not plain-sailing for Fiorentina. They have only collected one point from the last 21 available.

The Florence outfit have all cards in place to achieve most of their goals from now until the end of the season but only if they get back their lost pride and confidence and start focusing solely on the field of play.

Serie A statistics

2nd consecutive defeat for Juventus as they were floored by Palermo at the Renzo Barbera stadium for the first time in 56 years. The home side could not have aspired for a brighter start as they broke the deadlock after 15 minutes. Then, the Sicilians not only defended well but also created various scoring chances to wrap up the match. At the end, it was a well deserved win for Palermo, who continue to harbour aspirations of a UEFA Cup berth. Milan profited from Juve's second slip inside four days as they overcame Lazio 2-1 at the San Siro. After a balanced first half, Lazio took the lead early after the break. The introduction of Andriy Shevchenko as a second-half substitute saw Milan coming more and more into the picture. Eventually, the Ukrainian scored the equaliser in the 72nd minute. When the game seemed heading to a draw, Hernan Crespo stole it for the hosts as he grabbed the winner with virtually the last kick of the game. This win helped Milan to bridge the gap with Juve at the top of the table. The champions are now only two points adrift of the leaders. Had Lazio held on to their lead, then it would have been their first win against Milan since September 3, 1989 (1-0 in Serie A).

4 defeats (vs Roma 1-2, Cagliari 0-1, Palermo 1-2 and Sampdoria 0-3) have transformed Fiorentina's season from bad to worse. On Saturday, they were reduced to nine men from as early as the 10th minute as they had Valeri Bojinov and Daniele Delli Carri sent off. Inevitably, such a handicap left Fiorentina with a mammoth task to keep Sampdoria at bay. The visitors have now extended their positive run to five games (three wins and two draws). Udinese leapfrogged Inter in third place as they left it late to beat Brescia at the Mario Rigamonti stadium for the second season running. Udinese's second successive win (following their 3-0 win over Chievo in midweek) coincided with Brescia's 10th winless game in a row (four draws and six defeats). Brescia have not beaten Udinese at home since November 25, 2001 (2-0). Bottom side Atalanta revived their slim hopes of avoiding relegation thanks to a narrow home victory over Livorno. This was Atalanta's first home win over Livorno since October 1970 (2-0 in Serie B). Livorno's most recent of three wins in 16 league visits to Bergamo dates back to October 1942 (2-0 in Serie A).

5 draws collected by Siena in as many outings under the charge of new coach Luigi De Canio. On Sunday, Siena had a golden opportunity to break the jinx as they built a seemingly assuring lead against Reggina. However, two goals conceded in the space of three minutes shattered Siena's hopes of recording only their second victory - the first since April 7, 1957 (1-0 in Serie C) - in nine league visits to Reggio Calabria. It was the first drawn result between these two sides since November 14, 1982 (1-1 in Serie C1) and it was also Reggina's seventh positive result on the trot (three wins and four draws). Chievo bounced back from their heavy defeat to Udinese by beating Messina 1-0 at home. For the Sicilians, this was their sixth straight away defeat. Cagliari continued to consolidate their mid-table position by beating Lecce 3-1 at their Sant'Elia Stadium. Although Cagliari were by far the better side, they only made sure of their first home win over Lecce in over 11 years three minutes from time thanks to Mauro Esposito's second of the day. Lecce have not left Sardegna with a win in their bags since a 1-0 win on June 21, 1987 (in Serie B).

8 years had to pass for Roma and Bologna to share the spoils again at the Olimpico as the hosts dropped two precious points in their pursuit for a Champions League berth. Roma were off to a flier as leading marksman Vincenzo Montella put them ahead after nine minutes. But injury-plagued Bologna hit the equaliser midway through the second half in a rare scoring opportunity which fell their way. Roma are undefeated in their last six outings (three wins and three draws) whereas Bologna have not lost any of their last eight (five wins and three draws). Parma came pretty close to hand Inter their first defeat of the season as they were leading 2-0 with 14 minutes to go. But, as happened on other occasions this season, the substitutions effected by Roberto Mancini were a key factor behind 10-man Inter's strong comeback. This was the fifth draw - the first in over three years - in 15 Serie A meetings between these two sides.

26 goals were scored on the 23rd day: 17 coming from the hosts and the remaining nine from the visitors, who managed only one win. Foreigners contributed with only six goals while there were 12 first-half goals. Total number of goals scored so far amount to 565. Roma's Vincenzo Montella still tops the scorers' list with 18 goals. Mauro Esposito (Cagliari) and Enrico Chiesa (Siena) scored the only two braces of the day. Two players - Andriy Shevchenko (Milan) and Marco Borriello (Reggina) - came on as substitutes and found the net. Five players - Marco Materazzi (Inter), Valeri Bojinov, Daniele Delli Carri (both Fiorentina), Gaetano D'Agostino (Messina) and Vincenzo Sicignano (Lecce) - received marching orders. Meanwhile, three penalties were awarded by referees. In the absence of Paolo Di Canio, who started on the substitutes' bench, Massimo Oddo stepped forward to take Lazio's seventh penalty of the term... from which he made no mistake. Elsewhere, Parma midfielder Fabio Simplicio gave his side a first-half lead against Inter by converting a 36th-minute penalty. Later on in the same game, Christian Vieri grabbed Inter's equaliser from the spot.