Saw this today and didn't think much of it..until the Hogg rumours started. The writer seems a little disillusioned and frustrated with the lack of progress. What do you think? http://forzaitalianfootball.com/2012/12/udinese-club-focus/
An interesting angle. The Pozzos made no secret of their "develop players and sell them on for a profit" policy, certainly as far as the feeder clubs are concerned. I suppose it's likely that fans of such clubs might welcome the initial influx of players but there's always the possibility of reaching a critical point where greater success looks on the cards if valuable players are retained. Selling in those circumstances would certainly annoy fans, even if it made the club profitable.
Hmm - don't like the bit about GZ to Udinese in a managerial swap. But as to the rest of the article, that's life in football IMO & this is merely on a larger scale than we are used to.
It has been well known that the Pozzo model is to buy low and sell high. If you have enough players come through your clubs then one or two gems will come to light that you can sell for mega euros. Most of the players that the author talks about have not made the grade and are unlikely to make money for the family, so they will be let go. With regards to Hogg, I doubt that Ipswich have offered enough to fit the above model, but what we don't know is how the losses are being covered. The Pozzos do have the money, but are they prepared to keep pumping it in without seeing some coming back in. It makes little sense on the face of it to let Hogg go, but maybe cash flow is not what was hoped for.
i must admit, i thought they would start selling those that could make them money when we got to the 'promised land'...rather than now. I'd have said to sell before we're there seems a little premature (if they are actually selling!)
Another interesting blog that fits in quite well with this thread. http://watfordthrowin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/work-in-progress.html Somehow I think that he might be right. With the unexpected lofty position we currently hold it is easy to forget that it is WIP.
If he's writing from Toronto then it's not suprising he's frustrated! I liked the bit in his bio where he describes himslef as being 'condemned' to support Udinese, bit like me really....
I take it the author isn't Udinese's away fan? Employing more than 40 professional footballers, including a dozen full internationals, the knowledge that season ticket sales would not pick up until the Pozzos gave people a reason to buy, and with the Saracens revenue ceasing, I'm not sure what sort of cash flow was hoped for in the first six months. I think the commercial team have actually done quite well as far as encouraging people to buy individual tickets has been concerned, but there is only so much they can do while making sure that season tickets are always the best value for money.
The Italian chap, though a fan, does not seem to realise that the Pozzo's rarely spend money to buy- in players. They have an excellent scouting system to find undervalued/promising players, then aim to develop them for profitable sale. Their innovation is to do this on a large scale, and to make this the main priority of the business (while keeping their teams competitive in three competitive leagues). Any player who is a "success" at Watford is a candidate to be sold, at a moment that makes most business sense for the club. (Though not wanting to compromise a promotion push might also be a factor). I would not say Hogg was vital to a promotion push at this moment, though his sale value may well be near a peak.
We have been selling our best/most valuable players for as long as I can remember so why would that change just because we have new owners??? You cant have it both ways, we are a small club, small clubs have no choice but to sell their most valuable assets. Hell, even when we were in the Prem we sold Ashley Young. The good thing is that with so many players on loan it's less of a chance of our own to get snapped up. And if the loanee's who perform well dont decide to join us then it's no big deal as they weren't ours to begin with. We usually get good fee's for the players we sell as well, clubs like Blackpool get peanuts for their best players.
I think most Watford fans understand that this will still be the case, but it has been a very long time since we sold a key player in January for anything other than silly money. Do Ipswich have the sort of money that would be too good to turn down?
Mitch--the circumstances are now quite different. We are not a "small club". We are part of a multi-club system, in common ownership with clubs in Italy and Spain. Our owners are serious businessmen with a unique approach to running a football business for profit. We do not now sell our "best" players to keep afloat/pay the debts. Players are found/recruited/developed/sold in a systematic way, as part of a business process. This is not "what we have always done". It is (quite literally) a new ball game.
