Football Season Guide

The arrival of coach Kosta Runjaic brought a breath of fresh air at Udinese last season, as they displayed a different attitude from the previous campaigns, starting at full speed and even making the top of the table in week 4. They lost steam with the passing of time, also due to injuries occurred to key players, but they always offered an aggressive football, proving very strong physically. Having reached salvation early on, for the first time in a few years they seemed capable of fighting for a top 10 finish but were disastrous in the final weeks, obtaining 1 win out of 11 games, and had to content themselves with a mediocre 12th place. Shocking news came out at the end of the campaign as it was said that the Pozzo family were in talks with an American fund for the sale of the club. Nothing was finalised yet, but it could still happen in the next future. That would be a blow for Udinese supporters, very proud of their local ties. The transfer campaign was a rather disappointing one so far since they managed to let go starting striker Lucca and key attacking midfielder Thauvin, authors of 40% of their goals last season, without properly replacing them. In fact, up-front, they only added Bayo, who did well in the preseason after arriving from Watford. More bad news came from the defence, where Bijol left for the Premier League. In came Goglichidze, who did well at Empoli, and still-immature Bertola, but more is needed also considering that Tourè did not stay on and Giannetti also quit. Elsewhere, in the long run 18-year-old goalie Nunziante could represent a serious threat for Okoye, who will serve a 2-month ban for illegal betting and will be momentarily replaced by Sava. However, the midfield is the area which was strenghtened the most so far, with the arrivals of Piotrowski, an old-time Runiajc favourite, and 18-year-old Miller, impressive at Motherwell. Moreover, Atta, who left a deep mark last season, was signed permanently from Metz.