You took the words right out of my mouth, Every season I hope Udinese get relegated and fade into oblivion like Catania ( Who fielded 10-11 argentines as starters while in Serie A) Its just sad to see a Club like that not even care to even buy or develop Italians. These clubs like Roma, Napoli, Fiorentina who buy mostly foreign talent haven't won shit in Europe and never will. It's funny to think in the 90's serie A was mostly Italian and couldn't stop winning European club trophies and now that the bigger clubs are mostly foreign don't win shit. Serie A clubs can't compete with the big clubs from Spain, Germany and England so now they just half-ass it with foreign buys, not one Italian team will win CL for the next 10 years.
I am not going to deny that we have a bunch off foreigners because it is fact. I put the blame on Pozzo who has but ZERO money into the academy in the past 10 years. That being said the strength of the club in recent times has been finding talent abroad and selling for a massive profit (Alexis, Asamoah Benatia, Handanovic, this list goes on and on). It makes me sad that I don't get to regularly watch Italians play, but I realize that the price that an average quality Italian goes for is not worth it for the club (At least while until we finish paying off the Dacia Arena). You want the 2nd oldest club in Italy to fade into oblivion? I got news for you buddy, we are not going down anytime soon. FORZA UDINESE
Vincenzo Iaquinta ring any bells? Simone Pepe and Fabio Quagliarella were decent players. Alex Meret, Simone Scuffett, Simone Pontisso have great potential imo
How Udinese has any fans is beyond me. What kind of fan is happy with an owner who buys players just to sell them? Remember the last two times they qualified for the CL playoffs? The owner had a fire-sale and Udinese had to go into the playoffs with a far weaker team and didn't qualify. Nice way to treat your fans. They are anti-sport and anti-Italian. @UdineseFan98 What is your reasoning for being a fan of theirs? Sei Friulano?
I am not, my grandfather is. I have been watching games with him since I was young and naturally became a fan and will be to the day I die. I'm not happy about what is happening to my club but unfortunately football is a business. I can accept that. I mean Southampton does a similar thing in England, no?
Dossena came after Iaquinta. Your right about Quagliarella. He was same time as Dossena. Is Scuffet stilled owned by Udinese? And who the ******** is Simone Pontisso????
Scuffet is still owned by Udinese (played against Pescara this past weekend) and Karnezis' backup. Simone Pontisso is a young midfielder who could be a good regista in 2 years. He has been capped by u20 squad and is a promising prospect
UdineseFan98, I admire any tifoso that stands by their roots and their team no matter what. I don't begrudge you that at all. There is no doubting Udinese's immense history and the contribution of Friuliani to our calcio over the years. I just get annoyed as hell by Pozzo. He is a smart man and a very good businessman. His vision to build Dacia Arena while other owners play with themselves is to be admired. He did it in less than 2 years and only spent something like 30-40 million. With his great scouting department and that kind of vision, he could easily invest in a much better youth sector (eg. Atalanta) and buy younger Italian players and develop them. But, he doesn't. Why? Because he's looking at everything purely from a business standpoint. It's still cheaper to my bargain basement foreigners with potential and strike it rich with one of them. That might save him more money and keep him afloat in Serie A, but he'll never build a truly elite team. To me, Torino is the really smart team. They buy young, and yes even some foreigners, but they also invest smartly in Italian youth. Had they invested better on defense, they could have really made noise this year because their attack is lights out.
UdineseFan98, Forgot to ask...are you born and raised in St. Catharines? I have a lot of family up there and spent a year living there back in the 80's. That town has a ton of my paesani from Guardia Lombardi in the provincia of Avellino. Also some Abbruzzese and Calabrese mixed in. I had no clue there were Friuliani there.
You must be at Brock U. Port Dalhousie is a good bar spot once the warm weather hits. I was banging a girl out in St Catherine's for a few months early last year
That was when Simeone was coaching them, right? I think a lot of that was his doing. But yeah, it was pretty absurd.
I was half asleep when the game was on but unless I counted wrong, no Italians played for Roma yesterday until DeRossi came on in the 86th minute.
It's pretty difficult for me to believe that more players like Berardi, Donnarumma and Locatelli aren't awaiting to be discovered or developed. Berardi especially was found by chance as he was visiting his brother at school and joined in a pickup/invitee game. Where he came from, I'm sure there are many others out there. They won't be found though if all the foreigners are taking up spots....
Italians are great at creating great things but are also great at destroying things as well. Serie A keeps falling behind and unfortunately if teams don't realise that the talent in their own backyard is better or just as good as the foreigners they continue to bring in - we will continue to fall further behind.
I believe the problem started after Calciopoli and the 2006 World Cup win. It seems clubs just don't want to waste time and money to develop younger, talented players. Its so much easier to go out and buy a South American,defender, midfielder and forward than it is to develop a young Italian player who may not be ready yet. The sad thing though is Italians have always excelled at the defensive and goalkeeper position that its simply not necessary to go out and buy these players. Nothing will change though until either FIFA, UEFA or the FIGC puts in laws that will help the domestic player grow. I think they've passed some laws already but it will take at least another 5-10 years to see the fruits of those actions of what what will happen in the future.
Well it has come a long way from 2-3 years ago where it's difficult to even find players 24-26yrs old, but it still has a long way to go. Time should solve that problem especially with the high rate of youngsters moving from Primavera-(Serie C/Serie B)- Serie A in the last two summer transfer windows are any indication. This summer should see players like Germoni, Luperto, Palazzi, Cassata, Orsolini, Venuti, Ciciretti, Meret, and many others take a step up to Serie A.