Udinese technical director Daniele Pradè appears to offer support to Coach Julio Velazquez – but admits talking to other tacticians.
It was widely expected that the Spaniard would be sacked today, with Davide Nicola to replace him, but the director appeared on Udinews TV with some rather mixed messages.
“We’re sorry for the period we’re going through, nobody thought we’d find ourselves in this situation,” Pradè began.
Udinese technical director Daniele Pradè appears to offer support to Coach Julio Velazquez – but admits talking to other tacticians.
It was widely expected that the Spaniard would be sacked today, with Davide Nicola to replace him, but the director appeared on Udinews TV with some rather mixed messages.
“We’re sorry for the period we’re going through, nobody thought we’d find ourselves in this situation,” Pradè began.
“We made important investments and as technical director obviously I expected things to be different. I’m the first to be disappointed, above all for the fans who are giving us so much.
“Velazquez is a person who knows a lot about football, he has leadership and personality. Velazquez is a good person, but also a capable Coach.
“I still can’t find the reason for this situation, we want to make the best decision, together with the owners.
“We’re still evaluating, today I heard from the Coach, as well as Gino Pozzo, but we still haven’t decided. Between today and tomorrow we will make a choice.
“It’s stupid to think of sending Velazquez away just to have a new Coach work with the team during the international break, because we'll lose a lot of players to the national teams.”
Is it true that there have been discussions with other Coaches?
“At this moment all contact is lawful: talking and listening. We can’t be unprepared, any self-respecting club is obliged to analyse the situation and even talk with other figures.
“We have to support him [Velazquez] psychologically. He’s still a lad, but as a Coach he’s a man.
“This wasn’t a casual choice, Julio is still adapting to a different football and I like his profile.
“Francesco Guidolin? He’s not in my thoughts, I respect him a lot and he’s a great Coach, but he’s not in my thoughts.
"A lot of names have come out, from Nicola to [Massimo] Carrera but we're still in a phase of evaluation."
Does Pradè share the blame because of the make-up of the squad?
“We bought a 15 goal a season striker in Łukasz Teodorczyk, he scored a lot of goals in Belgium, but unfortunately he’s had injury problems from the start.
“He’s still very young and has to adapt to our league, and let’s not forget Kevin Lasagna, who reached the national team.
“He’s happy and he earned a renewal, but he’s not in the form of last year.
“I’d like it if we had a lot of Valon Behrami's in our group, we have a lot of good lads and a lot of interesting youngsters with quality.”