Is this as good as it gets under Pozzo?

We won't lose money or we might lose money. Either way I will say I told you so.

 

This season is unlikely to be surpassed ever unless they restore Z Cars straight away

 

I think Watford is a vehicle that allows the Pozzos to maximise the potential of their scouting network. I think that's where the money's being made. Also it's highly unlikely players like Doucs or Ricky wouldve joined Udinese at the time they signed for us. We're probably gonna trouser over £70 million profit from those 2 deals alone. Look at the potential value of Quina, Wilmot, Hughes, Chalobah, Pedro, Cucho, Strapon-vic, Panda and Lukebakio. All purchased and funded due to Watford's PL status. I think the Pozzo probably own player agencies and no doubt have fingers in many pies. I think they actually completely owned Isaac before we bought him. There's a lot of money sloshing around in football and Watford FC has been an incredibly affordable boost to take the Pozzo football empire to another level. They are really genuine benevolent owners, they are also incredibly smart and switched on. I think Watford is a very significant part their empire and having invested so much time and energy in it I dont think Gino will cash in his chips any time soon. I think Grenada was sold as it wasn't financially viable. Watford gives the Pozzos direct access to premier league resources and buyers like with Everton. I'd imagine Gino is over the moon about the success so far and is hungry to watch the younger players come through and flourish.

 

Exactly!

The tv money (& any increase in it) essentially goes straight out to the players.

How much are we losing per year at the moment?

Is it £20m or so (from memory)?

If so, one Richie size transfer out each year would make a significant impact. With the pipeline of young talent, this could be achievable.

 

Finish 7th, 8th or 9th
Win or lose the FA Cup final
Retain or sell Pereyra, Deulefeu, Doucoure and Sema

Whatever happens, we will rest, recuperate over the summer, have a full preseason and then, next August, WE GO AGAIN!

COYH!

 

Strap On Vic sounds most unpleasant.

The sooner Gino offloads, the better.

 

I had you pegged as someone who was into that.

 

The other option is that someone seriously wealthy buys us.

Chelsea were traditionally distinctly mid table before RA.

The lure of a London based club would be stronger for an oligarch type than it was for Pozzo.

 

Sounds like a character from one of Collymore's dogging forays.

 

I liked this, but don't even entertain the notion of Ken leaving!

 

I think that this is correct. I also think there will be further evolution. I was intrigued to learn that Ajax has contracted with a Chinese club and 1-2 others around the world to run their academies for extended periods (8 years I think). This seems a logical step for the Pozzo empire (although our academy brand is nonexistent compared to Ajax's). This is a logical extension past the "Pay Fluminese when they play Pedro) model. Non-big-6 clubs will need to keep being creative to create a river of lower-cost talent. Occasionally one of those clubs will break into the elite tier. But I think Gino is smart enough to make things like this happen. In fact, I think it's the plan. Making European football would be a big help in this regard. Finishing 7th AND beating Citeh would be a BIG boost - from a marketing and football branding/credibility standpoint - irrespective of any revenue impacts.

 

We also sold our best player that summer and replaced him with cheap bargain basement tat.

 

I think this is as good as it gets, until we start taking more than 3 points out of 33 against the top six in a season. We have no problem taking points of the non top six, so hope for better luck next season!

 

Leicester won the PL against all odds (although not as strong as it is now)

Not sure anybody other than city / Liverpool will win it in the next 5 years, however every year one or two of the big 6 have a melt down , realistically if we could do better against the bigger teams we could occasionally get 5th or 6th

If we get into Europe , we will be one of the best clubs in one of the best leagues in Europe so on our day should be able to compete

This time next year we could be in 7th , in a Europa final looking at a champions league place - we probably won’t , but last year I dint think we would be competing for 7th and in an FA cup final

In terms of Gino , if he was happy to be a premier league survivor would he really have got rid of QSF, Walter etc , looks to me like he has been hunting for a manager capable of taking us into Europe and with Javi he now has it.

Genuine question , what makes a big football club , tv revenue is so massive now do you really need a big fanbase to be successful , can’t imagine ticket sales count for much of a clubs revenue. I imagine shirt sales are a large revenue stream but suspect that in foreign territories success leads to sales. It wasn’t that long ago that the big 6 was a big 4 .

 

Sorry didn't have time to read carefully all the answers in this interesting topic.
As an Udinese's fan let me tell a few things (probably many of you already know).

Last 5-6 years for Udinese have been s**t! Avoiding relegation just because there were always at least three worse teams, and since Guidolin's years apparently we haven't ever found a really good coach. You all have seen this year with Javi Gracia how much that matters!

Yet, I am and always will be grateful to the Pozzo family because, barely or not, we have been in top tier for 24 (!!!!) consecutive years now (not counting yet next as 25th, because it's far from certain yet).
This is something simply amazing for the team of a 80k-citizens town where the owner is NOT a happy-spending billionaire, and counts almost like a trophy.

Many at Udine think that the problem for Udinese is that Gino, probably the real mastermind behind past successes, is now focused on WFC. I agree, but I understand.
He's a businessman, a football businessman, and he focuses where there is more money and the rules are better for him.
The TV money in UK is shared between the teams strictly for merit.
In Italy not only it is much less, but also it is shared with rules which weight: past 5Y positions, positions since 1948, number of fans, population of the province ... rules made to help the "usual" teams.
Even if Udinese should ever win serie A for 3 consecutive years, it would still receive one fifth of what Juventus receives from TV money.

That said, and given that Gino is now focused on you, I think you may consider the best years of Udinese under the Pozzos'.
For almost 20 years we have remained quite easily in top tier.
We have "disturbed" the top teams several times, being not just "the best of the rest" but often surpassing them in table and qualifying for EU cups 11 times.
Twice 3rd, twice 4th, twice 5th and twice 6th in serie A in thos 20 years.
Always and always while selling 2-4 of the best players in Summer to mantain a sound budget.
This is probably the reason we never had a really decent EU cup run. The best was quarter-finals UEFA Cup. Difficult with a "new" team each year.

So ... to answer. Is this season the best possible for WFC?
I think not!
I wish you all the best, because I'm a fan of Udinese but I am also proud of a businessman from Friuli being successful in Premier League.
If all goes well, I think you may enjoy much more pleasant seasons like this one, or even better!

But ... DO NOT become too greedy or too "well-fed" and complacent.
Business is business and Gino's way of doing business in football is clear.
Do not expect EVER crazy spendings to improve the team to aim for winning the Premier.
Do not be too disappointed because you qualify for a EU cup but only pass a couple of turns.
Just think about where you came from and who you are, and every season just enjoy the ride!

 

I think I read last year that Richarlison's transfer was not included in last year's financial results? If so that does put a different perspective on last years profit.

 

I think we probably only need 1 big sale every 2 years. It's just this season we have a few possible exits due to Bobby Ps contract, the possibility of a £50m offer for Doucs and Geri being stupid enough to leave the only club he's ever scored goals for.

 

That's correct

 

It just moves the fee to this year. If anything it shows what we lose when we don't cash in for £40m on a player. All the TV money goes into the players' and agents' pockets.

 

Ive heard from a little birdie that when SEJ dies hes donating all of his cash to Watford FC, leaving David to live in one of the flats above the Rookery.

As long as Reg manages to refrain from ramming all that money up his honker, we ll be alright for a few more seasons in The Prem.

Obviously, that's secret, so dont go blabbing it all round the High St because if David gets wind of it, he'll do his ******* nut and probably get the will changed and we'll be back in The Championship with a newly sacked Ginger BallBag Dyche as our manager.

 

Yes that was discussed at the time as it explained in the summer why Gino didn't have £50m to spend on replacements. It was effectively needed to cover previous years losses.

 

This all makes 100% sense.

Tell me, I am interested in your opinion on something, what do you think will happen to both Udinese/Watford when GiamPaulo Pozzo is not around anymore. Do you think Gino will be able to concentrate & manage both clubs at that stage or will he return to Italy to concentrate on Udine & sell Watford on?

 

Also what do you think about Okaka? From what you've seen would you want him next season?

 

The money, frustratingly, all went years ago on flowers & Ellington.

The only thing in the safe was the IOU.

 

The main thing is to have an owner who doesn’t care how much they lose.

Citeh is fantasy money. United, they have sucked the money out for a decade.

You’re right.

It won’t be a Top 6 in 5 years time.

It might be a Top 10 if more oli/oiligarchs join the fun.

 

Sherlock, thank you for your post. It is as astute & generous in spirit as ever.

The downturn in Udinese’s fortunes have coincided with Watford’s upturn.

I would be angry as as a Zebrette.

Chez Pozzo, what do you think is Gino’s motivation?

Will he sell at maximum valuation?

Does he want to do better than his father?

Will he go back to Udi when his dad dies?

Cool that a Friuli guy is so successful.

Like Elton for us.

 

Gino is arguably the best owner in the Prem, outside of an oligarch who spends his personal money on the ego trip of owning a successful team. Consider the following

• 5th lowest wage bill
• 1st XI cost approx £50 mill ( Brighton, Fulham both spent £100 mill in summer)
• 25 man squad approx cost £100 mill ( Everton spent just under that on Sigg and Rich alone)
• Top half team that plays attractive football
• All this depsite having 2nd smallest attendance in the Prem.
• Rebuilt ground to look pretty decent
• Very respectful to clubs history with homages to SEJ and GT
• Small things like taxi ing a load of away fans to ground who were stranded at services or buying everyone a drink on GTs 2nd death day.

Its a real shame that the press dont give him the due he is worth, just reeling out the same old cliche about employing 5,000,467 managers in the past 9.3 seconds.

 

I think we are doing as well as any club can do that is not sponsored by a nation state, or in Chelsea's case a criminal who has ripped off a nations people, or a billionaire/corporation prepared to invest vast amounts. We can still win something like a cup or have a euro run but I can’t see how we can challenge for stuff much more than what we are doing currently.

Considering our relative financial clout we are having an awesome season. The financial disparity is not just massive compared to the big six **** clubs but also to little **** clubs like Everton, West Ham, Leicester, Woofs, even Fulham and others. We can partly mitigate the relative financial disparity by having canny owners but ultimately I don’t think we can do that much better than now.

The financial inequity and the fact that the success of historically town based clubs is mostly dependent upon the whims of nation states or mega rich individuals massively annoys me and is possibly some kind of metaphor for what’s wrong with wider society. However, like the true hypocrite I am, I’m still enjoying our current success and grabbing of some money pie because we’re now way stronger than Leeds, Villa, Sheffield’s and a load of others.

 

I still find it amazing that this fact is not common knowledge. How Yeltsin sold off all Russias assets to his cronies, under the guise if democratising the country.

 

We were on our 3,700,363 manager when Shane Long put Southampton one up on Tuesday.

 

The thing that annoys me is that since we ve been in the Prem we ve had 4 managers.

In that same period, Chelsea, Leicester, Palace, Everton, West Ham, Soton, have all had 4 or more managers. Man Utd have had 3. Thats approx half the teams that have been in the Prem for all of the past 4 seasons.

But all you hear every time from pundits is the same cliche about sacking managers.

 

To be fair, in the late 70s Elton had the wealth of a small nation state.

And, some might argue, the girth.

 

Never let fact get in the way of a good put down.