Watford are currently eighth in the Premier League and enjoying a successful season. Udinese are currently sixteenth in Serie A and fighting for their future in the top flight.
Both clubs are owned by the Pozzo family, and with football fans being the way football fans are, some followers of Udinese feel there’s more concentration and effort being put on Watford’s future than the Italian club.
Thursday’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport talks of unrest. There’s been fan protests recently, and it seems like they feel a little neglected.
The Italian newspaper state: ‘In the viewfinder of the fans there is always Gino Pozzo, invited to spend more and to be more present, since he follows more closely the events of his other property, Watford in the Premier League.’
However, technical director Daniele Pradè is having none of it, and sounds genuinely annoyed.
Quoted by Udinese Blog, he explained: “I come to Udinese having a contract already made with Sampdoria, I chose Udinese for what the Pozzo family is, for what Gino Pozzo told me, for what Gino Pozzo is. I come with the intention of being the manager of this company.
“Gino Pozzo is heavily involved, both at managerial level and at an emotional level, gives 100%. It’s a family that does not like to appear, Gino Pozzo didn’t even appear when he went to Europe, he doesn’t even appear at Watford. He chose me to do this, when there is a challenge to Gino Pozzo there is also a challenge to Daniele Pradè.”
Pradè, who seems more in the mood to tell fans they’re wrong than to try and placate the support, continued to say the Pozzo family have kept Udinese in Serie A for 24 consecutive years.
He then added: “During this period a cataclysm in the world of football has happened, clubs like Fiorentina, Parma, Torino, Bari, Avellino have gone bankrupt, but also realities nearby like Venezia, Triestina, Vicenza, Mestre, Treviso. We are a solid company, which makes corporate planning an excellence. We, on the outside, are seen as a model organisation over everything. How is it possible that there is no reciprocity with our fans? This should be an identity, our strength, our cohesion, our pride. If we do not start from this where do we go? It is not that Udinese can win every game, nobody does it. We 
are doing a job that will slowly give us fruits, we have renounced a lot of money even in January, more cannot be done.
“…the Pozzo Family does not sleep. But we want cohesion with our fans, it is not possible not to have it, then the results do not come. If a tension begins between group and fans then it is difficult to bring home the result, and it seems to me that the boys do not deserve it.”
Daniele Pradè seems fun. Hopefully he’ll be sent to Watford one day.
