Fiorentina held their first training session on Monday at St George's Park, the home of the England national team. At the end of the session, Fiorentina captain Luca Ranieri shared his thoughts on the club’s pre-season:

“We’re feeling really positive. We worked really hard over the last two weeks at Viola Park and now it’s time to really kick on. We’ve got another two weeks together. It’ll do us a lot of good because we’ve got a long and intense season ahead of us with many games. We need to gel. We’ve got a new coach and many new players, so these two weeks in England will be worth their weight in gold.”

“The new players have come in with great attitudes, keen to show what they’re made of. They know what playing for Fiorentina means – our friendlies in front of the Viola faithful in recent weeks hammered that point home. It’s still early days but I think we can put together a great group this season.”

“The day after the coach came in he told me that I’d be captain. It’s a real honour for me to represent this city, even though I wasn’t born here. I’ve lived here for a long time. It’s a huge source of pride. I’ll try and do the captain’s armband justice. I know that I need to improve but I’m happy and eager to show what I’m made of.”

“It’s still too early to set objectives. As I said before, we need to improve on last season. We’ve had a good two weeks and we’ve got this fortnight now to gear ourselves up for the campaign, especially for the Conference League, which is huge for us. Serie A is also just around the corner.”

“There’s nothing better than having a city that really gets behind you. As I said before, there were so many fans cheering us on at Viola Park. It really gives you a boost during a draining pre-season. Now it’s about really cracking on so that we’re ready for the season.”