No Mike this week, so it's just Tito in this one, but the presence of our most tactically-savvy guest ever should more than make up for it. Marco Lai (also subscribe to his Substack, because it's consistently fascinating) is a certified match analyst who's quickly become one of VN's favorite social media presences due to his fantastic analysis of Serie A matches. We were lucky enough to track him down for a conversation about Fiorentina's approach under Italiano. Our chat covered a range of...

The games are coming thick and fast for Fiorentina right now, so your favorite podcast idiots are back in the saddle. This time, we're looking back at how the Viola have looked over the first part of the season and how they've emerged from the restart, which naturally steers the conversation into the transfer market. With that out of the way, we also consider what this team's expectations ought to be for the rest of the year. Then, ahead of a weekend clash with the Giallorossi, we got in a...

With the winter holidays wrapping up, your favorite Viola podcast idiots have a late present for you: an episode devoted entirely to you! That's right, Mike and Tito are here to tackle questions ranging from how to get Fiorentina back in the Champions League, the Primavera-to-US-insurance-salesperson pipeline, and the Hipster Super League. So settle into that ugly sweater, pour yourself another mug of nog, and dive into, well, your thoughts about this team. Along the way, you can also learn...

Okay, we know this is a Fiorentina podcast, or at least a hipster wine/beer podcast, but when Juventus winds up under federal investigation for fraud, we've got to talk about it. And there's only one guy we trust to talk all things Bianconeri: Dom Penza. If we can't get hold of Dom, though, we'll grab Danny--the Blog Overloard at Black & White & Read All Over--to walk us through the Juve board's resignation and what exactly it entails. We'll also chat a little bit about the Juvenuts'...

Your favorite friendly Fiorentina podcast idiots spend this episode searching for the meaning in these meaningless days without the Viola, and they come pretty close to finding some. The conversation ranges from the revolving door of the January transfer market to the two-steps-forward-one-step-back nature of the women's game in Italy to the return of the Blessed Adrian Mutu. And okay, fine, we'll give you some grudging World Cup predictions, along with all the Sofyan Amrabat propaganda you...

We've got a slightly different format today, featuring a shorter episode and just a single host. It's just Tito in this one, but McMike will be back shortly. We want to make this a weekly show but it turns out that getting both of us and Producer Mike in the same Zoom room every week is really tough, considering that we've all got other stuff going on, so this is our compromise: a shorter solo show whenever we can't all get together for a full-length one. So jump in for half of your favorite...

With the Viola's season on pause for some reason nobody can quite explain, your favorite Fiorentina podcast idiots are back to bring that splash of purple back to your life. We started off with a quick look at the AC Milan game and the absurdity that came with it before zooming out and trying to figure out where this team is right now after a wretched start, highlighting a few newer developments that have the good guys flying, well, maybe not high, but at least not into a smoking...

It's not always fun to talk about Fiorentina, and it's even less fun to talk about Fiorentina during the international break. Nevertheless, your favorite Viola podcast idiots do their level best. This is a less granular episode and more of a zooming-out, higher-level (for us, so it's all relative) look at the club as a whole. We talk about the possibility of bringing back Saint Gabriel Omar Batistuta to Florence in an official capacity before looking at the org chart and figuring out what it...

Your favorite Fiorentina podcast idiots are back to talk about a slew of topics. We begin with a breakdown of the Viola mercato (spoiler alert: we think there may still be gaps in the squad), then veer into how the team's looked on the pitch (another spoiler alert: not very good!), and wrap up with a discussion about what some possible fixes could be. Oh, and I guess it's worth mentioning that we touch on why Fiorentina owner and president Rocco Commisso is badmouthing our very own Mike...

It's happened. Everybody, it's happened. Fiorentina has played some games (albeit against your sister's boyfriend's cousin's amateur team), so the calcio is officially back and your favorite Viola podcast idiots are back to talk about how that makes them feel. Of course, because we're still at the height of summer, we're also going to run through plenty of transfer rumors while addressing the current state of the squad. Along the way, we learn about Mike's love of sending cheesesteaks through...

Oh hello. It's been a minute since we released an episode, but we've got plenty of good reasons: We ran out of gas. We... we had a flat tire. We didn't have enough money for cab fare. Our tuxes didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole our car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts! IT WASN'T OUR FAULT, I SWEAR TO GOD! (Really, though, blame either Coronavirus or Disney or both.) As you maybe guessed by the title of the episode,...

Well, this one isn't perfectly timed. Your favorite Viola podcast idiots recorded this on the Sunday before a certain afternoon at the Luigi Ferraris that devastated Fiorentina's European aspirations in the most brutal way possible, so our emotional and psychological states have, hm, deteriorated since then. On the other hand, maybe some bubbly optimism will help push some of those clouds away, even though our first topic is (sigh) Fiorentina's chances of qualifying for Europe and whether...

As we languished in the international break, your favorite podcast idiots decided that, since there's not much happening with Fiorentina, we'd open the floor to the audience, and boy howdy did yall deliver. With Producer Mike's help, our conversation ranged from the Primavera to Fiorentina Femminile's struggles to possible transfer targets to the Coppa Italia and beyond. And we even had Serie A answer a question about when that Udinese game would be rescheduled, so that was nice. We also...

We're back, Viola fans, and we're ready to talk about all the Fiorentina stuff that we didn't think was going to be a downer before we started recording this but realized that, wow, we sound pretty grim here. Yep, that means we're chatting about that Juventus game and Dušan Vlahović's return to Florence, but we're also commemorating Davide Astori (sempre con noi) on the fourth anniversary of his passing, looking at Fiorentina's chances the rest of the way, and trying to figure out what's...

It's been a minute since we recorded one of these, so let's dive into it. Your favorite Fiorentina podcast idiots have their plates full. The conversation begins with a discussion of the winter transfer window and how the Viola did in it, and yes, we did mention Dušan Vlahović once or twice. That took us to the Coppa Italia, where we remained pretty giddy after a famous victory, and even managed to engage in some rare optimism while looking at the prospects for the rest of the season. Along...

Well, will you look at that? You blink and all of a sudden half of January's just gone. Normally, we'd be worried that Fiorentina wasn't going to buy anyone to reinforce a talented but flawed squad, but the arrivals of Jonathan Ikone and Krzysztof Piątek had us feeling pretty good about the men's team, while the arrivals of Vero Boquete and (still can't believe this is real) Valentina Giacinti have the women's team looking like maybe the best attack in league history, even if missing out on...

Ho ho holy smokes, we're just about at the end of 2021. As a belated holiday present, how about a podcast retrospective over the past year, and especially over the team since one Vincenzo "Cousin Vinnie" Italiano took the reins? We'll look at the best and worst moments--and yes, a certain game against some Notts County cosplayers features prominently--but, because there's nothing else you can talk about this time of year, we also dive into the mercato. That means predictions galore, which are...

You might not know this about your VN staff, but we’re usually a little behind the times. It’s why McMike’s got an endless supply of 1990s movie references and why all Tito's music is from 2006 or earlier. It’s also why we’re only just getting this post-Cagliari episode of the podcast out right now (okay, that’s actually entirely on Tito, so direct any irritation his way and not towards the Mikes, please). Anyhow, we had a rollicking good time on this one. We opened up with a chat about the...

A back-and-forth game that results in yet another encouraging loss against a top team. A wantaway superstar. Despicable stupidity from the fans. It's pretty much just another day in the life of a Fiorentina fan, and your favorite podcast idiots are here to break it all down for you. We start with a discussion of the loss against Napoli and then move onto a look at where the Viola are at this point in the season (spoiler: it's better than last year) before moving on to a conversation about...

After knocking off Genoa, Fiorentina made it three wins in a row, which means we got to see our first Viola win streak in almost exactly two years. That's exactly the kind of minor trivia to which your intrepid hosts will never overreact, which is why we kept our heads and absolutely, positively did NOT succumb to any sort of giddiness. And yeah, we recorded this before the Inter Milan game, so just imagine how that ended for us. (Not well.) Along the way, we learned that Mike’s happiness is...

Hello there. You look ravishing. Can I ask you a question? Did you know that FIORENTINA IS BACK, BAYBEE? Yep, we're talking about Viola games again, and it feels so good. Because this is Fiorentina, of course, it can't be all good, and that game, of course, is a (very referee-influenced) opening day defeat at Roma. Still, your humble narrators manage to drag some positives out of the affair before turning to the ongoing mercato and venturing some typically well-considered opinions that aren't...

Fiorentina have finished the Moena portion of their preseason, so now it's time for your resident podcast idiots to dive into what it all meant (and, more importantly, what it didn't mean (which is everything (or nothing (or just too many parentheses)))). From the tactical approach to the mentality to the roster, we touch on just about everything and even make some really, really hopeful predictions that will all absolutely come to pass and make us all very happy, thanks. From there, it's...

Summer is generally the most optimistic time of year for Fiorentina fans, so we decided to record a happy podcast. And naturally, Giancarlo Antognoni's departure from the club means that we get to start with a lot of sadness. As we lead into a new-look Fiorentina Femminile's prospects for upcoming season, we stayed kind of sad. It wasn't until we started getting into what's going on at Moena that we began to perk up a little bit; by the time we were chatting about transfers, we were nearly...

Last time we recorded one of these, Fiorentina had just hired Gennaro Gattuso and looked to be in a great place. It was very nice of everyone involved to blow that sky high and give your humbled podcasters so much to work with as we sort through the pieces. It's not all bad news, though, because the arrival of Nicolás González and the return of Riccardo Sottil mean that there's plenty of good news. And we wrapped up this episode by answering a host of questions from the folks who listen to us...