The Englishman who saved Udinese, and the legends reviving them

"I don't know how they got in," laughs Keinan Davis.

The striker had scored the most important goal of his career and returned to his apartment to find 'thank you' posters and stickers from Udinese fans across his front door.

Davis' first goal in Italy was also the one that kept Udinese in Serie A on the final day of last season, the substitute netting a 76th-minute winner at Frosinone that relegated the hosts and lifted his own club to 15th and safety.

"That was probably the best feeling I've ever had in football," adds the Englishman, who missed most of his debut season in Italy because of a calf injury.

"In football, you get your respect on the field with your team-mates and not being able to do it was a bit difficult. But it was all worth it to score that goal - 100%."

From almost dropping out of the division in May, Udinese are now eighth, just three points off top spot, a position they occupied before defeats by Roma and Inter Milan.

Davis, largely from the bench, has already made more appearances this term than in his injury-hit first season, and has benefitted from the arrival of English-speaking head coach Kosta Runjaic.

The striker's route to Udine, in north east Italy, has been unconventional.

Davis grew up in Stevenage but was let go by the League One club and was playing under-18s football at seventh-tier Biggleswade Town when he was scouted and signed by Aston Villa, going on to make more than 70 appearances in the Championship and Premier League before loan spells at Nottingham Forest and Watford.

In September 2023 Davis joined Udinese for an undisclosed fee.

"I was a bit scared to leave England because that's obviously all I knew," explains the 26-year-old. "When you get older different situations arise, like this one. It opened my mind to playing in a different country, learning a different language."

He watched former Villa team-mate Tammy Abraham succeed at Roma, and now AC Milan, and brings a physicality to Serie A which can be rare.

"The tactical side of it is slower than English football," says Davis. "I am physical and there are not really too many of those types of player.

"You see [Romelu] Lukaku and people with physical attributes do well. In England everybody is physical and everybody is fast."

Joining Udinese has also presented Davis with the opportunity to link up and learn from one of his heroes.

Alexis Sanchez is an Udinese legend. The Chile forward's three seasons in Udine coincided with some of the club's best years and earned Sanchez a move to Barcelona in 2011, going on to play for Arsenal, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Marseille.

In August, the 35-year-old returned to Stadio Friuli on a free transfer and is working his way back to fitness following a calf injury. He has been greeted like a hero.

"I am an Arsenal fan," beams Davis. "He was, for me, probably the best player in the Premier League in those years. He is a different level. In training you can just see his intensity. It's surreal to be able to play with a player like that.

"He's been through a lot and played at the highest level. You just watch how he trains, how he is in the gym and apply it to yourself.

"We had a presentation night introducing all the new players, and he was the last one to come out. The noise was just crazy. He is humble and hard-working, so just fits right in with the team."

Sanchez's old team-mate Gokhan Inler, another from the late 2000s Udinese vintage, played a prominent role in bringing him back to the club.

"Nino [Sanchez] is my friend. We had success together. To bring him was very important because he grew up here and made a great career," says Inler, who returned to Udinese as technical director this summer.

"It helped us inside the team [and] it helped us outside the team to bring everybody back to the roots when we did very good.

"Nino is a fantastic guy. Still he is hungry and he wants to win. Of course he has an age, but age is a number in the end. If you perform on the pitch, nobody can say something."

Inler's job is to help revive a club playing their 30th successive season in Serie A, but who have not finished above 12th since 2013. In the decade preceding that, they experienced Champions League football, reached the Uefa Cup quarter-finals and enjoyed competing at the top end of the table.

"Everybody suffered. The club, the fans, the people," says Inler, who alongside Austrian coach Runjaic has introduced open training to help build a connection between players and fans.

"I tried to bring them back to these feelings, to bring them closer together, and in this two and a half months I feel this has happened. The city, the people are motivated and they feel the wind has changed."

Inler spends 10 to 12 hours each day at the training ground, talking with players and the manager, working with departments to help "modernise" the club, drawing on the experience he gained during a playing career that ended this year at the age of 40.

"Little things bring the mentality and the group all together," says Inler, who also represented clubs including Napoli, Leicester during their title-winning season and Besiktas, while winning 89 caps for Switzerland.

"Speaking with the players a lot, young players, players who don't play - the most important are those who don't play, because they will push the team."

Breeding a "winning mentality" throughout the club is one of his main targets, and Inler was impressed when Udinese came from 2-0 down to beat Parma 3-2 last month, having already defeated Como and Lazio.

They will go second in Serie A, albeit potentially briefly, if they beat Lecce at Stadio Friuli on Saturday.

"There are many aims," adds Inler. "The first little aim was to win two games at home, because last season they won only one. We did it already. Little, but achieved.

"To stay in Serie A is the minimum. In future, Udinese must always be high. We can achieve something - and they deserve this."