Jankto: 'Udinese imprisoned in dirty hotel'

By Football Italia staff

Jakub Jankto has accused Udinese of “punishing the squad by keeping us imprisoned in the worst hotel for three weeks” and can’t wait to leave Serie A.

The 22-year-old Czech international spoke to Ceskatelevize in his homeland and painted a dismal picture of his current club.

“I’ll concentrate on the remaining internationals and then will calmly discuss with my agent what to do next,” said the midfielder.

“I would like to leave Italy after four years. I was happy here, but I’d like to try another competition, such as England or Spain.”

Udinese had a disastrous campaign, as Gigi Del Neri was fired, so was Massimo Oddo after a record run of 11 consecutive defeats and Igor Tudor – who only had four games in charge – is also about to be dismissed.

“It looked promising at the start, as we won five in a row, but in Spring we had this series of 11 losses. The club punished the squad by keeping us imprisoned in the hotel for three weeks. It was unbelievable, over the season we were at the hotel for over two months. I felt like a slave and couldn’t even see my kids.”

The so-called ‘ritiro’ – a team retreat in a hotel or at the training ground – is a very common Italian club tactic for bonding a side and ensuring their focus only on their football to emerge from difficult results.

However, Jankto saw it as “punishment” for their defeats.

“We were kept in the worst hotel in Udine, where there are dirty toilets. It was punishment and they said it was going to strengthen us, but instead it just created more arguments.

“This club is already paying for a fourth Coach and Tudor is probably leaving too.”

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