Granada and Udinese are in their respective top leagues. It doesn't seem they'll go down next season, nor challenge for Europe or win the league either. Yes, Udinese have done better in the league in previous seasons, Granada have only had low bottom half finishes since they were promoted. So, if you were the boss of this triangular arrangement, wouldn't you think - How many quality players can I realistically afford to offload to Watford to get them up without risking relegation for the other two teams? Surely it would be financially worth risking it a bit. Why have we had so many dodgy loans and unfit players given that there is a big pool of potential players from the Pozzo's clubs and moreover their scouting network. Have a look at some on this list, seriously, we could do so much better, looking back the last two season we have had more player movement than I can ever remember, we need some stability and not a load of players offloaded from a trawler net.
Their pool of potential players is mostly drawn from Southern Europe or Latin America (via Granada) whereas any foreign successes at Watford have tended to be either central or north European. Also we may be overlooking the decline which has taken place in Italian football over the last 10 years or so. There was a time when the Serie A attracted some of the best players in the World - but those days are long gone, with their league now lagging in 4th place behind Spain, England and Germany in terms of European club success, and known more for crumbling old stadiums, crowd violence, falling crowds and match fixing than for great football. Sad to say but even the Udinese first team would not survive in the Premiership, so where does that leave us ?
Last season wasn't bad in terms of guys from these clubs but I suspect we really did get some 3rd choices this time. I suspect with the modern technology of scouting methods other teams have caught up to an extent and money comes into play. Faraoni cost 5 million for Udinese so maybe the Pozzos aren't perfect!
