UDINE. It is not true that no news is good news. At least in the case of Gerard Deulofeu who is tormenting the sleep of Udinese fans and, in recent weeks, also of the upper floors of the Juventus club.
The number 10 was in Barcelona on Thursday 26 January for a consultation with Dr. Joan Carles Monllau Garcia, the trusted orthopedic surgeon who operated on his right knee in the spring of 2020 to rebuild the anterior cruciate ligament he sprained while playing for Watford on.
The reason for the visit was explained the other day by Udinese itself who spoke in an official statement of “repeated episodes of instability”, the first of which last November 12 in Naples, when Delofeu left Maradona in tears in mid first half, only to then be comforted by a consultation right in Barcelona to resume preparation. However, a slow recovery that was practically never completed, if it is towards that last Sunday at Marassi, against Sampdoria, in the first match, the Catalan resisted on the pitch for 14 minutes before being replaced in the 91st minute. Moral of the story, after an initial note from Udinese that ruled out injury after the match in Genoa, in the last few hours the good “Geri” was back in Barcelona, from where, however, no indiscretion has rebounded.
In short, if the specter of the transfer market always remains in the background, given the rumors that have come from England on the interest of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa (decidedly more insistent than the Italian ones on Roma), now it is the fear of an injury serious than expected to peep out in this last week of negotiations in the winter “window” which will close next Tuesday, the last day of January, at 8 pm.
In both cases, Udinese would lose its “diamond” in view of the next months of the championship, during which Andrea Sottil would find himself dealing with a weakened squad in attack. That’s why Gino Pozzo, no longer able to sign a “support” striker with a non-EU passport (the last place was occupied at the beginning of 2023 with Matheus Martins, the Brazilian forward loaned to Watford), scoured the market.
The most convincing profile was that of Josip Brekalo, 24 years old, a year in Turin before returning to Germany to Wolfsburg with which he is expiring. So he played little: but there is no shortage of admirers. With a million, the Germans let him go: in addition to Udinese, Fiorentina, Napoli, Monza and the Spaniards of Getafe are lined up. And the purple club is in pole position: agents’ commissions are on the table. Brekalo is therefore “running away” from Udinese’s radar which continued to look around yesterday.
It’s difficult to find a striker capable of scoring goals and making suggestions for teammates like Deulofeu. In Turkey there is the Romanian international Alexandru Maxim of Gaziantep, 4 goals and 5 assists in 18 games, numbers that have made Besiktas raise their antennas, but he is already 32 years old and for this reason he is less convincing around here. —
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