FACTFILE: Francesco Guidolin

18th January

Francesco Guidolin has a wealth of experience and success from his 27 years in management.
The 60-year-old Italian's biggest success was leading Udinese to third place in Serie A - recording their highest top-flight finish and points tally - thus sealing their first Champions League campaign.
He also has three promotions on his CV with Parma, Palermo and Vicenza. Guidolin made his name with Vicenza after lifting the Italian Cup before leading them to the Cup Winners' Cup semi-final, where they lost to Chelsea.
A former Italy Under-21 midfielder, Guidolin spent most of his playing career with Verona before playing his last game with Venezia.
He started his managerial career in Serie C2 - the fourth tier of Italian football - with Giorgione before spells with Treviso, Fano, Empoli and Ravenna.
After impressing at Ravenna, for whom he won promotion to Serie B, Guidolin got his first taste of Serie A with Atalanta.
The following season, Guidolin was back in Serie B - but not for long, leading Vicenza straight back to the top flight before winning the Italian Cup in 1997, which remains the club's only major domestic trophy.
That success earned qualification into the Cup Winners' Cup, where they reached the semi-final stage only to be beaten by eventual winners Chelsea.
His four-year spell with the club came to an end when Udinese made him their head coach after recognising his achievements with Vicenza.



A year later he returned to Bologna - a club he spent a year on loan during his playing days - and helped  Rossoblu to top-half finishes along with experiencing Uefa Cup and Intertoto Cup campaigns.
His success continued during his first spell in charge of Palermo, with an immediate promotion back to Serie A followed by a sixth-place finish and qualification for the Uefa Cup for the first time in the club's history.
That success caught the eye of Monaco, with Guidolin getting his first management role outside of Italy.
But he was soon back on familiar soil, returning to Palermo to lead the club to a noteworthy finish of fifth in Serie A before eventually leaving in 2008.
Parma was the next destination for Guidolin, and he added another promotion to his CV by leading the club back to Serie A, in which they finished in a respectable mid-table position.
That led to interest from Udinese, with Guidolin returning to the club he had previously managed.
And his appointment brought huge success for Udinese, who went on to finish the following campaigns in fourth and then third place - a club-record high - while they also qualified for the Champions League with the likes of Alexis Sanchez and Gokhan Inler playing starring roles.
In May 2014 he left his head coach role at Udinese to take up a position as technical supervisor of the teams owned by the Pozzo family, which included Udinese, Granada and Watford.

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