The Pozzo's and the Udinese model

[Durkidurk]

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Introduction:
First of all I have to say I've tried to do this save/manager story in earlier FMs but I have never really stuck to it but it's something I've been wanting do and hopefully I can stick to it this time.
My computer isn't the best so it's not ideal for a save like this because I love signing players from smaller/odd football nations but I'm sure I can make it work.

Something else is that I wanna mention is that English isn't my native language so I hope I won't do too many mistakes and if I do, I don't mind getting corrected. I'm trying to improve my English, grammar and story structure.

Below you will see something I spent way too much time on, writing, copy-pasting and re-searching. But I feel like it's a very interesting story and wanted to share it to those who haven't heard about it.

 

[Durkidurk]

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Gino and his father Giampaolo

About the Pozzo Family:
Giampaolo Pozzo (born 21 May 1941 in Udine) is an Italian businessman. He is currently the owner of two football clubs: Udinese Calcio in Italy and Granada CF in Spain. His son Gino is the owner of Watford FC in England.

Gino Pozzo is the son of Italian businessman Giampaolo Pozzo. He is currently the joint owner of Watford FC in England with his father. He is heavily involved in the day-to-day running Watford as well as negotiating transfers between his father's two other football clubs Udinese Calcio in Italy and Granada CF in Spain.

The Udine born Giampaolo Pozzo bought Udinese Calcio in July 1986.

As I haven't really posted much on this site I seem to be restricted to my whole post at the same time?

 

[Durkidurk]

The key figures in the Pozzo family.
Giampaolo, now 74, bought Udinese in 1986 using money from his family’s tool-making business, which was sold in 2008, allowing them to turn their attentions fully towards football

The key man, however; the one who fielded those phone calls, is their son Gino, whose arrival on Udinese’s payroll following his graduation in 1993 coincided with the adoption of the scouting-reliant model that has sustained their success ever since.

He has also led the family’s international expansion. The idea may have come about because Udinese found themselves with too many players for one club reasonably to use but Granada and Watford are more than just finishing schools. A presence in Spain allows the Pozzos to bring to Europe players who could not get a work permit in Italy, while success in England brings financial rewards beyond compare elsewhere.

 

[Durkidurk]

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Gino masterminded both acquisitions, first identifying Granada after moving to Spain. Granada who back then was in the third division, at the time they had major financial problems. Two years later they ended a 35-year absence from the Primera Liga.

“Our model is to look for a project that will be sustainable in the medium and long term,” he told the Friuli newspaper Il Gazzettino. “We pay close attention to expenditure, to making the clubs self-sufficient. We saw what happened to Parma, where the moment they stopped spending the wheels fell off. We try to install proper management and then we add value by developing young talents.”

Player recruitment is the most famous part of the Pozzo family’s increasingly complex international operation. Their greatest success remains Alexis Sánchez, signed for £1.5m from the Chilean club Cobreloa as a 17-year-old, loaned back to South American clubs for a couple of seasons until considered ready to make an impact in Europe, eventually sold to Barcelona for £30m.

 

[Durkidurk]

The Udinese model is based upon an extensive scouting network across the world that buys young and upcoming talent for relatively small sums and when they turn into stars, sell them on for a large profit which is then reinvested in the club and other signings.
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Quality players who Udinese has sold since 2007/08:
Vincenzo Iaquinta
Gökhan Inler
Samir Handanović
Asamoah Gyan
Cristián Zapata
Alexis Sanchez
German Denis
Fabio Quagliarella
Simone Pepe
Mauricio Isla
Kwadwo Asamoah
Antonio Candreva
Roman Eremenko
Juan Cuadrado
Pablo Armero
Aleksandar Luković
Mehdi Benatia
Sulley Muntari
Dusan Basta
Guilherme Siqueira
Allan
Roberto Pereyra
Luis Muriel

 

[Durkidurk]

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2010-11, Udinese appoints Francesco Guidolin.
In the summer transfer window of 2010, Udinese sold Gaetano D'Agostino, Simone Pepe, Marco Motta, and Aleksandar Luković. They also brought in players that proved to be the key to their success in the 2010–11 Serie A; Mehdi Benatia and Pablo Armero, a central defender and wingback, respectively. After a poor start to the season, losing their first four games and drawing the fifth, Udinese went on to record their highest points total in history and finished in fourth place, again earning themselves a spot in the Champions League qualifying round.

In two seasons as Udinese coach, Guidolin obtained a fourth and a third place: both results were hailed as astonishing, considering they both led his club to a place in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League (Udinese's best result in club history, equalling Alberto Zaccheroni 1996–97 season).

On 20 May 2014, Guidolin left his role as Udinese head coach to accept a position as technical supervisor of the three teams belonging to the Pozzo family (Udinese, Granada CF and Watford F.C.).

 

[Durkidurk]

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Granada C.F​

In 2009, Udinese's Pozzo family complete Granada takeover.
In 2006–07, Granada played in Group IV of the third level after four seasons in Tercera (level 4 of the Spanish pyramid).

Three years later, in July 2009, the club was in such financial difficulty that it was on the brink of closing. The solution to the crisis came with the signing of a partnership agreement with Udinese Calcio, with the Spaniards incorporating large numbers of players contracted to the Italian club as well as receiving its youth players and reserves as part of the agreement.

The same season Granada managed to get promoted. Granada won its group then promoted in the play-offs, returning to the second division after 22 years.

In 2010–11, Granada finished in fifth position, with most of the players loaned by Udinese still on board. On 18 June 2011, the club became the first winner of the promotion play-offs thus returning to the top division after a 35-year absence.

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Watford F.C.
In June 2012, Udinese's Pozzo family complete Watford takeover. The club ran up a £2.6m loss in 2011-12 and sailed close to administration before the Pozzos bought Bassini out and took on the £13m debt.The Pozzo family have invested around £20 million into Watford since taking over the Hornets three years ago.

Just like with Granada, Udinese provided players to Watford.
That single-minded approach has resulted in Watford stretching some transfer regulations to their logical limits. In their first season under the Pozzos they brought so many players in on international loans the Football League legislated to stop the practice, so Watford handed out permanent contracts instead

Following a successful 2012–13 season which saw a league-best 85 goals scored, Watford ultimately finished third in the Championship, narrowly missing out on an automatic promotion place by two points. In the promotion play-off semi-final, Watford was defeated by Leicester City 1–0 in the away leg, but won 3–1 at home, with Troy Deeney scoring the winning goal on a last-second injury time attack following a Leicester penalty kick miss to advance to the final. Watford were defeated in the final by Crystal Palace, 1–0, on an extra-time penalty.

On 25 April 2015, Watford gained promotion to the Premier League after defeating Brighton 2–0 and other results went their way.

On 5 June 2015, Quique Sánchez Flores was appointed the head coach of newly promoted Premier League side Watford, replacing former head coach Slaviša Jokanović and being the fifth man to hold that position in the past twelve months.
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[Durkidurk]

How I'm gonna do this:
I'm gonna manage both Granada and Udinese at the same time, I feel like it would be too much with Watford as well but who knows.. If it goes badly for them I might take over Watford in the future as well.

But I believe in Quiqué Sanchez Flores, as a Atletico Madrid-supporter I feel like he's gonna do a good job Similar to how it's going for them in real life. The only thing I'm worried about is that Watford will do bad trading, selling their good players way too cheaply and then buy **** replacements. Let's see how it turns out but I will follow them closely.

My goals with this serie:

• Keep up the Udinese-model, keep being a selling club.
• Reach the European spots, I don't care if it's Champions or Europa League.
• Something else that I want to do is to have domestic homegrown players as the core of the teams, similar to how Udinese has been doing it with Pinzi, Domizzi, Pasqual and Di Natale. Udinese need a new generation of Italians to come trough.
• Spend as little as I can on any player.

 

[nadyadhea]

Thank for information, this very interesting for me

 

[dllu]

Interesting concept!

 

[FMPivot]

Great idea!