In a long interview granted to TV12the patron of Udinese Giampaolo Pozzo he spoke like this about salvation and next year: “We are present for what is needed, when we realized that there was actually a risk we were all always present… We are happy not to have had the problem that had emerged in the last few days, because the We risked Serie B, I got scared. Maybe it would have been too great a punishment for us, the fans and our province, but we took the risk, if you arrive with 10 minutes to go it can’t all be foreseen and calculated, I appreciate the congratulations, but we could also, quote, be ashamed of having arrived at this point, I have felt ashamed for the last few weeks. I suffered, then you see certain opponents who achieve certain goals and suddenly seem to have become world champions and you don’t understand how they did it. You feel bad about it. I got back at 5.30 in the morning, so yes I didn’t sleep much. It was a fairly tense evening with the right, I think, tribute of having won the match and having guaranteed Serie A again this year. It was a particular year, the project as always was not, as always, to reach the last day, the last ten minutes to maintain Serie A. Normally the project is to play the normal championship, without suffering and with hope to maybe enter a European cup. In recent years it hasn’t gone like this but there is always hope. This year everything happened. Accidents to the forwards, we had brought in two new ones, including Davis who scored the saving goal, but we never used him due to physical problems. We had this deficiency, they were also in the project, two more valid and important attackers. Then many other inconveniences that led us to those last ten minutes. It went well, we were lucky, I don’t congratulate the club or myself for what happened, but I must say that we had an adverse season. Let’s turn the page and start over. I don’t feel like I deserve congratulations, staying in Serie A is part of the Udinese project.”
30 years of Serie A is an important milestone:
“Yes definitely, there are few clubs, even important ones in our championship, that haven’t had 30 consecutive years in Serie A.”
Was there any criticism that you felt was excessive?
“No. I am mainly a fan, I like to see my team win, if they clearly don’t win I don’t clap my hands, this is the logic, so I accept criticism and do self-criticism, in the end we choose the technical staff and everything, so we must assume our responsibilities.”
Will we start again from Cannavaro?
“Now my son will talk to him after the bowls have stopped, we’ll see. They had only talked about the final for the championship, now we’ll see about the future.”
Will there be any changes in the management?
“We are reviewing everything a bit, we have just finished, it will take a few days to outline the organization chart and the staff for next year, taking advantage of the negative things that have occurred, we will try not to repeat certain mistakes”.
The fans have come together to help you:
“I was pleasantly surprised, the Friulians are not an expansive people, I myself watch the matches but I don’t get excited. Seeing that at a certain point they became aware and afraid of Serie B, with this participation to avoid it, I was pleased, I understood how much this team is loved by the Friulians, it’s proof of what we saw. I think it helped the team a lot, with all the ailments and more they put their heart into it in the end.”
Will the team be rebuilt or revamped?
“I expect few things, some support, we have to recover some injured boys. Deulofeu? He’s a long-term patient, I hope he recovers, he’s already old, let’s hope for the best. There will be no re-foundation, the team has excellent potential, it hasn’t expressed it , what happened must help us to add something more also by providing for some more replacements, certain management situations that we didn’t agree with. The attack and the goals were missing, this is the truth of the matter.”
Someone called for a change of coach before:
“It’s difficult to talk about it now, we did what we could to save the day, we’ll take note of the mistakes and we’ll try to be more ready for the future.”
Is the European dream always there?
“The hope is always to always win every match, even against the strongest opponents, sometimes it happens, I hope every year that it can happen. Going to Europe is very nice. We live in a quiet, orderly region, so you want to do good because the region deserves this. Now we have to look around the world for kids of different cultures, sacrifice ourselves so that they fit in and it’s not easy to make a team of multi-ethnic groups, you have to work as a team, if you don’t work as a team you don’t win the games once. it was easier, many years ago you had Italians and 70% were Friulians. We have a youth sector, an academy, but few talents come out.”
Many messages of affection after salvation:
“We will do everything to ensure it doesn’t happen in the future, but unfortunately I can’t guarantee because there can be unforeseen events in football. But we are all in the same boat and we don’t want to suffer like this again, I thank the fans for the solidarity shown, which is necessary to save us. In recent months the fans have rallied around the team and it has been important for achieving the objective, my recommendation is that they continue like this and we will try to do better than we have done.”