Maybe but where's the logic in selling them, it makes no sense? ... and in this case their explanation was both reasonable and emphatic, simply someone had noticed them discussing a business partnership and for whatever reason made their own conclusions, maybe malicious, maybe not but there are no end of journos making a living from presenting fiction as fact.
I really hope you're right. The only reason I can think of for selling is if they have lined up the purchase of another Spanish club.
There was an interview last week (before they were safe) with Gino in a local paper. Can't read the whole thing as it's behind a paywall but the headline quote from Gino is "Our vision is to save and grow Granada, not to sell". http://granadacf.ideal.es/noticias/201605/05/nuestra-ilusion-granada-salve-20160504224019.html Depends whether you believe Gino I guess. My take is that the Pozzos are generally silent or non-committal when there might be something in a rumour and the few public statements they give are truthful.
One thing that I have found since the Pozzo's took over, is that mainly any journalistic rumours end up being true.
Dermot Corrigan @dermotmcorrigan Didnt make Barca piece but Granada president Pina more or less admitted to @diarioas that club could be sold by Pozzos to Chinese investors.
It does make some business sense and the Pozzos are first and foremost businessmen. Granada do not look a safe bet to stay up long term so selling them while they are in La Liga, with the TV money that entails, is the safer bet. I would not be surprised if they have lined up another Spanish club to buy in the Segunda Division (or lower) to continue to develop young Spanish and South American players and start a new 'project' with. I will be sad to see them leave 'the family' if this is true though.
First they came for the Socialists sold Granada, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist Granada fan. In all seriousness, I hope this never happens to us! "Hey look, Luton are cheap".
This is worrying. Rumours from a totally different source, a fan on Udinese forum writing: "At a lesson in a course for Sporting Director (or something similar) that a friend of mine attends, one of the invited speakers was one of the Udinese & Watford's scouts. Apparently, he let slip that Granada will not be much longer of the Pozzo's" I've become accustomed to cheer for Granada and for it's last straw safeties from relegation.:]] Hopefully, even if rumours are true, Granada will remain a sort of "allied team". I mean: Gino Pozzo has shown he's a sort of "Football Manager genius", but obviously he cannot follow well all the three teams and must delegate a lot of responsabilities. He's obviously not happy of the management at Udinese (rumours say many will be axed this Summer) and probably he's neither terribly happy of what Pina has done in this years. Maybe they're going to sell to an economically strong Chinese group with the hope to continue a strong cooperation between the three teams, like "you have the money, we have the know-how, we may forge a great partnership". But that's just wishful thinking.
Are Giampaolo and Giuliana running the show in Udine? If so, it could be that they've struggled to move with the times. Gino has been the driving force behind much of what is good about Udinese for the past 10 years. There seems to be noticeably less 'good' ever since Gino started to commit his time to Watford and delegate to others at Udinese. Perhaps once we're more stable in the Premier League we may end up seeing Gino return to the frontline at Udinese, and leave the running of Watford to Scott Duxbury.
Di Natale's last game for Udinese today, at home to Carpi. Promises to be an emotional day for all involved with Udinese. Hopefully it ends well. Carpi will be relegated if they don't better Palermo's result v Verona.
Wow! Both Udinese and Granada escape the drop by just one point in the end. The Pozzo's have got a really busy summer ahead.
Cordoba (on loan to Mainz from Granada) has joined Mainz permanently. I find this odd, loaned out from relegation strugglers in La Liga to now Europa League Mainz, yet Granada couldn't find a place for him. Baffling.
Udinese set to appoint Giuseppe Iachini as their new manager, according to this article at least. http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/...t-on-target-to-watford-owners-despite-offer-b
Arsenal supposedly want Duvan Zapata http://www.squawka.com/news/arsenal...riker-duvan-zapata-says-franco-soldati/681091
I almost forgot about him. I think he'll be still in Primavera team, unless he really "breaks up" as a true wonderkid. He's still only 17YO and last season played many matches in the Primavera team with lads older than him. I guess this season he'll be constantly in starting 11 and hopefully will impress.
Udinese turned down a 12m bid for Zielinski from Liverpool whilst accepting an identical bid from Napoli.
I suppose that Napoli are far ahead of Udinese at the current time, but we are directly competing with Liverpool for that final European place
I was thinking there's potentially a player involved (like the Allan deal they did with Napoli that gave us Britos)
From rumours, Napoli is offering the same sum AND Zuniga (going then to WFC). Also with more deals possible with them: also from rumours, Widmer to Napoli and Valdifiori (+money) to Udinese. Another thing: the deal with Napoli was almost already done, but it seems the player "preferred" Anfield Road. The Pozzo's are honest in deals with players but can be also very hard. It looked very much like the player was "forcing" them to accept a lower offer in order to go where he wanted to go. This could easily end up with Zielinski staying at Udinese, on the bench, for the full next season.
Being unemployed and very bored i'm watching the under 19 Euro's game between Italy and Germany. The young Udinese keeper Alex Meret has been excellent, looks a very good keeper.
They talked a lot about Scuffet (1 year older) when he was GK for half season and refused the Atletico Madrid transfer, but connoisseurs say that Meret is much much more talented.
Sherlock - Who is Udinese's first choice goalkeeper (or who was last season), and where does this leave Simone Scuffet and Alex Meret?
GK was and will be Orestis Karnezis, really very very good and confident. Number 2 will be Scuffet (who was 1 year on loan to Como, second tier, relegated to 3rd), fighting to become (hopefully) #1. Meret will probably go on loan in serie B (or maybe even serie A if he does a very good EURO) in order to gain experience instead of staying on bench.
Karnezis the Greek goalkeeper was #1 last season. Scuffet went on loan to Serie B I believe (and from what I recall his team did pretty badly, maybe even getting relegated). Would be a decent idea to have at least one of Meret/Scuffet around the first team next season. Although guess it's not a bad thing to have a keeper sent on loan to a terrible team, at least you know they'll get tested plenty of times!
Here the highlights of Italy-Germany U19. It's basically Meret's show, as Italy had only 1 shoot (the pen). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIB43v42hmg&feature=player_embedded
