The eyes of the football world recently turned to Udinese`s Bluenergy Stadium (formerly Stadio Friuli) for a thrilling European club season opener between Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain. This is a sight Gokhan Inler, a star of Udinese`s successful teams in the late 2000s and now the club`s technical director, hopes will become far more common.
“It was a great game, a great show,” Inler remarked, describing it as “intense and heavy.”
He yearns for Udinese to regularly host such high-stakes encounters, reminiscent of his playing days when the team challenged Serie A`s giants for Champions League qualification. The club`s privately-owned, UEFA-standard stadium is perfectly suited for events of this caliber.
However, such matches have been rare for Udinese in recent times. Their last appearance in continental football dates back to 2013-14, with their peak European performance occurring five years prior, reaching the UEFA Cup quarterfinals where they narrowly lost to eventual finalists Werder Bremen. In the years since, Udinese has maintained its Serie A status, but despite developing talents like Alexis Sanchez and Bruno Fernandes, they have struggled to replicate their former competitive edge.
“When I played here, we were all young, not famous,” Inler recalls. “We only had Antonio Di Natale as a true legend and a couple of other players. Our strength came from the group and how we respected each other. This allowed us to achieve far more than people thought.”
In his current leadership role, Inler emphasizes this collective strength. “You build inside the core and make that very strong. Of course, budget-wise, we are not the same as the bigger clubs, but we have the heart, right?”
While it`s still very early in the new season to definitively assess Udinese`s ability to compete with Serie A`s top teams over 38 games, they have already proven capable of defeating the best in a single match. Title contenders Inter were impressively downed at San Siro by Kosta Runjaic`s side. Despite the hosts dominating possession, Udinese fought back remarkably, turning a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 lead before halftime. From that point, the visitors defended with immense heart and commitment, limiting Inter to just two shots on target and 0.75 expected goals.
As a player, Inler would have savored such a victory for days. As an executive, however, his focus is on the bigger picture. The 41-year-old isn`t content with a single win; he aims to build a team that the Friuli region can consistently be proud of.
“Udinese is a worker`s city,” explains Inler, who has opened training sessions to supporters to foster a closer connection with the young team. “They appreciate every worker and every player giving 100%. You can lose, you can win, but you must sweat for the shirt.”
“When I played here with that great group, we energized this area. My goal is to surpass that, to forge an even deeper connection with the fans. People here respect you… if you respect them. Players who work hard and give their all have the region`s full support.”
Inler has also implemented more tangible changes within his role. While Udinese has a long-standing strategy of buying young talent and selling them for significant profit (this summer saw over $20 million from Leeds for Jaka Bijol, alongside other eight-figure departures like Lazar Samardzic, Nehuen Perez, and Lorenzo Lucca), Inler`s distinctive approach is to ensure new, younger recruits already possess senior experience. “When a player comes in now, he already knows what we expect. We don`t want to sign someone and then they start playing football.”
Lennon Miller exemplifies this strategy. He joined Udinese for over $6 million after being linked with clubs like Ipswich Town and Union Saint-Gilloise. Miller, a two-time Scottish Young Player of the Year, had already made 76 senior appearances before his 18th birthday. While his Udinese debut is still anticipated, the contingent of Scottish players has aided his transition to Serie A, as has, in Inler`s words, the “football-minded” character of players such as Scott McTominay and Evan Ferguson.
“We already see he has huge quality,” Inler states, the man responsible for bringing Miller to Italy. “We need to give him time to settle. It`s not just about football on the pitch, but also his life off the pitch with his family. You need to settle them perfectly so he has no doubts. If a player has doubts, believe me, he loses many percentage points on the field.”
Should such doubts arise, Inler, more than most, can empathize. He understands how even moments of great collective triumph can come at an individual cost. In 2015, the then-Napoli midfielder joined Leicester City to considerable fanfare, hailed as an “outstanding acquisition,” the man to fill the void left by outgoing player of the season Esteban Cambiasso. The unforeseen problem for Inler (though not for the rest of Leicester) was that the club had, two weeks prior, signed a far less heralded 24-year-old midfielder named N`Golo Kante.
Nine months later, Inler received a Premier League winner`s medal, yet his memories of that extraordinary season in the East Midlands are, to say the least, conflicted. Playing only five league games cost him a spot in Switzerland`s Euro 2016 squad, and despite a career resurgence in Turkey, he never added to his 89 international caps. Nevertheless, his description of life at Leicester echoes many of the qualities Inler now seeks in the Udinese dressing room a decade later.
“When I arrived there, I saw a truly strong group,” he recounts. “We did everything together off the pitch. We were genuinely a great family.”
“Personally, however, it was the most difficult year of my entire career. I came to help the team, but it was in the final days of the transfer window. They had already trained and played together. After eight years, I was changing countries from Italy—the opposite of Miller`s situation. On the pitch, too, the automatisms and movements couldn`t be learned in a week. You need time to settle quickly.”
“The coach tried me in some games, and honestly, I wasn`t fantastic. I couldn`t showcase my skills. The style of football was quite different from Italy. Leicester played compactly and utilized fast players on the break. Coach Claudio Ranieri experimented, but once he found Danny Drinkwater and Kante, the team kept winning. A veteran like Ranieri would never change a winning team.”
And why would he, with Kante rapidly emerging as one of his generation`s top midfielders?
“Why did Kante become one of the best in the world?” Inler asks. “Because we, the players who weren`t playing, pushed him. The group respected that. I pushed Kante and Drinkwater, and Andy King too. I had the chance to leave after six months, but I said, `Why change? I`m a fighter.` The coach replied, `Gokhan, no problem, fight and then we`ll see.` We never lost. What could I do?”
“Sometimes I was in the stands, not even on the bench. After six months, I lost my national team spot and the captaincy. I played the minimum number of games to earn the medal. It was incredibly tough for me: working every day, not playing, traveling to away games, not playing, going home, extra training, not playing… But in the end, what happened? I won the most important trophy in the world.”
Having contributed to such an unforgettable triumph, Inler believes Udinese can achieve similar success. Teams led by Antonio Di Natale and Oliver Bierhoff previously demonstrated that the club can reach the top tiers of the league without the financial power of Serie A`s traditional giants (the Sette Sorelle).
“Of course, Serie A is a very difficult league. You face `monsters.` But we won`t hide. We will always fight,” Inler declares, emphasizing Udinese`s determination.
