Atalanta: 2024/25 Ritorno

August 7, 2021

Things are not looking great right now. Our performance in the league has been sub-optimal to say the least. We did well to qualify from our Champions League group but now face a PSG side that will sweep us aside with ease. Our last hope is in the Coppa Italia.

JANUARY TRANSFER BUSINESS

There were four senior team departures in total in the month with a further two of our youth prospects also taking their leave.

Firstly, the youth: Danish striker Simon Brandhof (£2m, Porto) and Dejair Palermo (£1.6m, Palmeiras) were both free signings in 2023 when they arrived from FC København and Palmeiras respectively. They both have plenty of potential for the future but with younger player progressing much more quickly beyond them I felt the time was right to cash in.

Leaving from the senior team, Marcus Edwards has gone out to Roma on loan for the rest of the season with a mandatory £7.75m fee attached, Mini-Messi never really made it stick in my team and was a somewhat unfortunate casualty of my decision to abandon any efforts at playing with wide attackers. Marco Carnesecchi has moved on to Everton for a fee of £3m, as my back up goalkeeper he only ever made 5 appearances during my time here but he’s still only 24 years old and despite not really looking like every taking the No.1 shirt here it is likely he’ll do well at a club like Everton.

Carles Aleña was my beau. My exception signing. He cost me £1.6m from Barcelona in January 2022 and has deputised across all three roles of my midfield but never really made himself a starter for us - he’ll always be remembered for his winning goal against FM Grasshopper’s Atlético Junior in La Copa LQ. When Shanghai SIPG offered £20m for his services, I felt obliged to accept.

The final outgoing player of this window was a big one, one which I had no choice in. Thiago Almada’s £38m release clause feels like an absolute steal for Atlético de Madrid. Almada made 147 appearances in an Atalanta shirt, scoring 33 goals and laying on another 34 for his teammates. A considerable profit for the man we signed for just £7m back in 2021 but it leaves a considerable gap to be filled.

The one arrival in January was prompted by that move for Almada. My intention is that either Daniel Nachev or even Søren Knudsen will be the long term replacement but with our midfield now two men down (when you include Aleña’s move) we needed another body to maintain the depth. This move was perhaps led ever so slightly by some level of personal affection but Christian Eriksen comes in on a loan from Inter for the remainder of the season.

RESULTS

We’ll get the obvious one out of the way first. Our Champions League First Knockout Round tie with PSG went exactly as expected with the French side taking control in the first leg before blowing us away in the second. Brenner’s 26th minute equaliser at the Gewiss Stadium gave us brief hope and even at 3-1 we knew there was still a small chance - sadly PSG’s 10th and 13th minute goals in the second leg put any hope of a revival to bed quite early.

The Coppa Italia was our great hope for the season but even that slipped through our hands. Our Quarter Final win over Udinese set us up with a two legged Semi against Lazio. The Rome side were relentless over two legs beating us 7-1 on aggregate.

So, onto Serie A action. We were against the odds here and heavily reliant on those ahead of us slipping up if we wanted to meet our pre-season expectations. The Ritorno started so well with four consecutive wins - the Sassuolo game was mindblowing as Brenner’s five goals shot us to a 6-4 win. Sadly, our performances against the bigger teams let us down again as we slipped to successive defeats against Inter and Juvents before having to complete a second half turnaround against Sampdoria to seal the three points.

We went into March beating Benevento away and Fiorentina at home in well deserved wins before coming up short against old foes Cagliari. The defeat against Napoli left us all but out of the reckoning for a top four finish.

Our hopes of Champions League Football at this stage were slim, it was possible but we’d have to win every remaining game and hope that others slipped along the way. Our win against Roma maybe doesn’t carry the prestige it once would have given their in-game struggles but it was a happy 3 points nonetheless. Then it all came crashing down - consecutive losses to Chievo Verona and fellow top four challengers Milan killed off our pursuit of top tier European football. We finished out the season on a relative high by winning our last five games… it left a sour taste in my mouth considering our results in those five fixtures at the Andata end of the season - had we not dropped 8 points in those games we’d have sealed 4th place.

We finish the league season in 7th place. It’s European football but nowhere near the level we need to be hitting at this club. Our head-to-head record against Napoli this season is what denied us Europa League.

THE NUMBERS BEHIND MY WORST SEASON YET

It was Brenner who topped the appearance charts with 48(1) appearances this season but in minutes played he comes second with 4,213 minutes, Pau Torres completed 4,302 minutes in his 48 appearances.

In what has been a disastrous season we see Brenner have his most successful period with a total of 29 goals, French wonderkid Aaron Ntella Samba is second with 16 and Edmond Tapsoba was third with 6 - no penalties this year.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu also had his most successful season with 20 assists. Aaron Ntella Samba came second again with 11 and new signing Emerson was in third with 7.

Donnarumma was supposed to be the big saviour of our season but he only managed 13 clean sheets in his 45 appearances, managing to concede a whopping 61 goals in the remaining 32 games.

WHERE DID IT ALL GO WRONG? WHAT’S NEXT?!

I desperately wanted this to be the season where I go out with a bang by bringing home a trophy. Maybe my team was too inexperienced with its average age of 23. Maybe throwing every cent I had at Donnarumma was the wrong move when I still had a very competent goalkeeper in Dominik Livakovic. Maybe losing Eduardo Camavinga hit us harder than I imagined it could.

In my third and fourth season it felt somewhat like we had plateaued but what I didn’t realise that it wasn’t a plateau, it was simply the peak approaching a cliff edge wanting for us to dive off. It’s beginning to move in my mind that I should have departed Atalanta when things peaked in our Champions League Final year, I was almost too wedded to the idea of a single club save.

For now, I’m not sure what to do next. My manager’s contract at Atalanta expires on 30th June 2025 and I’ve been offered a three year extension - God only knows why - is there still hope for something to be done with this Atalanta team? A UEFA Europa Conference League win? Or is it time to step away and let the AI ruin things as they usually do?

Atalanta: 2024/25 Andata

July 21, 2021

With all the transfer dealings completed before the season began we could get stuck straight into this new Serie A campaign. I started out fairly hopeful and expectant, with good reason too given the considerable sums invested in the playing squad over the summer.

RESULTS

Things did not get off to a great start with us having to come back from a goal down twice in the first half against Spezia, we ended up taking a 3-2 lead into the half but gave up an easy goal late on in the second half to drop two points. We squeezed through against Sassuolo having given up a two goal lead at the half. On our travels to Lazio we came up short, conceding our sixth goal of the campaign in just three matches. The result was better at home to Hellas Verona but in truth the performance was not great, days later we were undone on our travels again with a defeat to Champions Inter. To compound our misery we hosted Juventus in the next league game and I can safely say it is the worst we have played in the entirety of this save (to date).

Brenner left it late to claim victory away to Sampdoria but Robert Lewandowski’s penalty wasn’t enough to secure the 3 points at home to Benevento. It was at this point we scrapped the 4-3-1-2 and reverted back to our tried and tested 3-4-1-2 - the change paying off as we claimed a narrow victory against Fiorentina. Our three centre backs grabbed a goal each in the 3-0 demolition of Cagliari before surprise title-challengers Napoli stopped any momentum building. The hit to our morale carried over to our next game as we drew a blank in Rome.

We managed to go throughout the five games in December unbeaten and add two January fixtures into that run also. That would be a massive positive if it weren’t for the five 1-1 draws - two of which came against sides predicted to have to fight against an instant return to Serie B. I do have to acknowledge the optimistic notes in the wins over Chievo Verona and Torino - Declan Rice scoring his first league goal for the club.

At this rate of going we will be lucky to see European football next year, never mind fighting to improve on last year’s finish!

Despite our domestic troubles, we made a glorious return to European football by qualifying for the knockout phase as second place in our group.

With my chances of a title challenge pretty much dead in the water, the Coppa Italia is what I need to fuel me! Brenner and Hakan ensured our progression with a fine 3-1 win over Bologna.

WHERE HAS IT ALL GONE WRONG?

The pre-season tests of the 4-3-1-2 tactic were all so positive but as soon as the competitive football started it fell to pieces. I wanted defensive stability and encountered anything but - that £151m on Donnarumma is looking quite silly right about now as the “World Class Goalkeeper” has conceded 22 goals in his 23 games keeping just 7 clean sheets.

This is easily my worst Andata performance of the save and I’ve (sensibly) written off any chance of a return to the Top 4 this season - even to catch Cagliari in 6th might be a stretch given how poorly we’ve played at times.

In Europe we’ve been drawn against Paris Saint-Germain in the first knockout round of the Champions League. Hardly reasons to be optimistic against the side fielding a front four of Kai Havertz, Neymar, Antoine Griezmann and Erling Haaland. Oh, and they’ve just spent £112m bringing in Phil Foden from Manchester City. On the bright side, we have a favourable record against PSG in previous games having beaten them 1-0 at home and drawn 0-0 away in our first season’s Champions League group.

The Coppa Italia is where my hopes really lie. We face Udinese in the Quarter Fina, the winners facing Lazio, Cittadella or Lecce in the semi final. This is a massive opportunity that I just can’t throw away this season.

Atalanta: 2024/25 Pre-Season

July 8, 2021

With my expectation that this could be my last full and proper season in this save, it feels like this needs to be one monumental last push for success. I still feel like any confidence in predicting a title win would be overstating our status but I definitely expect us to at least be within reaching distance of a title race whenever January comes about. In Europe, I think we definitely peaked with our run to the Final two years ago - I’d be happy to see us being competitive in the knockout rounds again. The Coppa Italia is where I’m really throwing my hopes this season, a final is a must but a win? That would be just glorious.

TRANSFER MOVES: THE EXCEPTION TO THE RULES AND GOODBYE TO A FRIEND OF MINE

I’ve previously explained that I wanted to bring more control to our transfer dealings. Operating a direct replacement process rather than signing players on a whim. With that in mind, I did also explain that I wouldn’t let this thinking stop me from moving for the right player if they become available. The following section displays both theories at work…

Firstly, we said goodbye to José Luis Palomino - the last remaining player from my original spine. The Argentine defender moved on the completion of his contract to return to Argentina and sign for Boca Juniors. That’s seven years in total with Atalanta at an end! In this scenario, I haven’t felt the need to move for a replacement in the transfer market - with Pau Torres, Edmond Tapsoba and Danish youngster Mads Jensen, I feel we have the centre back position covered. We also can look toward the U20 side to provide back up with the likes of 18 year olds Christer Hellum and Malthe Lassen on the cusp of the senior squad.

It will go without saying that the most significant departure of this window was that of World Class French Midfielder Eduardo Camavinga. The man we signed from Rennes for £58m three seasons ago has moved on to pastures new at Real Madrid for an eye watering £170m!! The man chosen to replace Camavinga’s place in the midfield was Declan Rice - his dual Eng/Ire nationality ensuring he wouldn’t take any non-EU spaces! The deal was done for a fee of £54m and I expect him to slot in as our Deep Lying Playmaker.

The next significant outgoing was Edoardo Scanagatta who had become my back up right wing back. His £275k departure to Salernitana left a void to be filled. Having signed Alessandro Florenzi last season to replace Dodo, I considered how much longer we would get from the 33 year old. After careful consideration, I moved to bring in Emerson from Dortmund. Another pricey signing for £65m but I feel like he is a serious step up in that area who can contribute effectively to both defence and attack - better late than never to adequately replace Dodo.

The following two signings fall under that ‘right player’ category. Luis Muriel’s departure from Real Sociedad had already been confirmed when I moved to sign a pre-contract agreement with the man who left us for £26m two seasons ago. My idea was that he would simply act as the back up to Brenner and Hlozek… that is until this man became available. Even at 36 years old and with his legs in pieces, I couldn’t say no to Robert Lewandowski on a free transfer following his release from Bayern.

The final signing of the season was one I agonised over. When Dominik Livakovic picked up a sprained knee ligaments injury that would rule him out of the first two months of the season, I decided to make the move. 25 year old Gianluigi Donnarumma - 69 caps for Italy, 328 league appearances for Milan - signs on the dotted line for Atalanta for £151m. It’s a ludicrous amount, I know that, but just maybe this is the big move that pushes us from also-rans to gold medalists?

FRIENDLY RESULTS

I used our four friendly matches to test out a new tactical system - a 4-3-1-2. It’s something that has served me well in previous editions of the game and I think may give me a bit more stability in defence with a flat back four.

The initial signs were quite good with four clean sheets and us scoring quite readily. Lewandowski getting himself into the goals for his first few apperances in an Atalanta shirt was nice to see.

PLANS, HOPES AND EXPECTATIONS

As I’ve said, I believe this could be my last proper season with Atalanta in this save so I’m hopeful of getting off to a quick start in the league.

Our first five fixtures are a good mix with Spezia (away), Sassuolo (home), Lazio (away), Hellas Verona (home) and, winners of the last two Serie A campaigns, Inter (away).

I’ve taken some relatively big risks in this transfer window so here’s hoping it’ll pay off big so I can sign off in style!

Atalanta: 2023/24 Ritorno

June 25, 2021

I left the end of my last post on a bit of a depressive note. Having already written off a title challenge, bombed out of the Coppa Italia and assumed the position for our impending two-legged entanglement with Manchester City in Europe. Having had time to reflect, I’m still content that we see ourselves battling within that top four. I think this is about our level and I’m okay with that.

It’s worth noting at this point that at the point of January 2021 in my game, I exported my Atalanta side to take part in La Copa LQ as organised by Latte Quarterly. Much like Spurs and the PL Asia Trophy, I am claiming my victory in this competition as a genuine success! Please have a read, it was an absolute joy to be a part of and I am thoroughly looking forward to the next edition.

ARRIVEDERCI PEDRO

I won’t waste too much time on the last few days of the January Transfer window. We expected Pedro Porro to leave, I had already signed his immediate replacement, Pedro Porro took his leave.

Porro initially sign on loan from Manchester City in July 2022, his signing was made permanent six months later in January 2023 for £14m as our replacement for the Barcelona-bound Dodo.

With 58 appearances, 2 goals and not a single assist, Pedro Porro has completed his move to Chelsea for a fee of £17m with 20% of any future profit due to Atalanta.

RESULTS

There’s no point wasting any time here so let’s dive straight into that Champions League First Knockout Round against Manchester City. The Cityzens made short work of Atalanta with a 6-1 aggregate win. We just couldn’t cope with Raheem Sterling, Lautaro Martinez and Kevin de Bruyne. There’s no point in even trying to come up with excuses, they were just that good.

We started the Ritorno in the worst possible way by losing despite scoring three goals away to Lazio. Our four fixtures in February made amends though as we collected a maximum 12 points scoring nine goals along the way and keeping three clean sheets. Particularly enjoyable was the Lombardo Derby win over Milan - we have now both won 4 times against each other during this save, though this was my first win at the San Siro.

Our good form carried through into March as we collected 10 points from a possible 12 with another two clean sheets added to the bank. French youngster Aaron Ntella Samba grabbed his first goal for the club in the demolition of Fiorentina while Yankuba Janneh continued his impressive introduction to the first team with his third and fourth goals for Atalanta. Disappointingly we couldn’t get the better of Napoli but showed great strength to come back from a goal down twice in this game!

April was the month that finally confirmed that a first Serie A title for Atalanta would not be forthcoming, this season at least. It began in fine fashion with a 3-0 home victory over Sampdoria before Roma’s solitary goal brought an end to our nine game unbeaten streak in the league. We responded well by getting the job done away to Chievo Verona, a game which had a first goal of the season for young Alessio Rosa and a first Atalanta goal for Alessandro Florenzi since his January move. We looked set to lose to Juve in the league for the first time since September 2021 when fortune shone favourably upon us in the dying moments of the game when we were awarded a 94th minute penalty - Edmond Tapsoba stepping up to convert. Away to Inter is always a difficult game and they made short work of us this time. We finished off the month with an impressive rebound to beat Udinese 3-1.

We had four games now to finish the season. The first required a 92nd minute equaliser from Brenner to spare our blushes - I don’t understand our struggles against Cagliari, we have just one win against them in the league during this save. We drew a blank against Parma, having one of those games where nothing seemed to stick for us. A 4-1 win over Bologna left us to a final day shootout or top four: ourselves, Milan and Juve battling it out for 3rd and 4th place.

We occupied 3rd with 74 points, Juventus in 4th with 72 points and Milan in 5th with 71 points. All three games were a draw at half time: Juventus twice coming back from a goal down against Chievo to draw 2-2, Milan with an added time penalty to level their score against Lazio at 1-1 and it was goalless in our own fixture at home to Spezia. As things stood we would retain 3rd place, Juventus 4th and Milan out in 5th. Milan were the first to jump in the second half, eventually moving to a 3-1 lead before a nervy finish as Lazio pulled a goal back - Milan settled their nerves with another stoppage time goal to finish the match 4-2. Spezia took the lead at the Gewiss against the run of play but it was the golden boy Brenner who found an equaliser 15 minutes from time to keep us a point above Milan in 3rd. We waited anxiously for the three games to finish… Juve couldn’t find a way to break the tie and their sole point kept them out of the Champions League reckoning. 3rd place again for the mighty Atalanta!

THE STORY OF THE SEASON

Once again it was Brenner who had the most appearances this season with 46(2) but Dominik Livakovic who led the way on minutes played with an incredible 4,080.

Livakovic kept 18 clean sheets in his 45 appearances, conceding 46 goals in the remaining 27 games.

Our top scorer probably needs no introduction at this point - Brazillian Brenner leading the way on 28 goals. Following on was Adam Hlozek with 14 and Thiago Almada closely behind on 12. Interestingly it was centre back Edmond Tapsoba in fourth place with 8 goals - largely due to his status as penalty taker but also the fact he is an absolute beast from set pieces. I said my aim this season would be to encourage more goals from our midfielders - the return has been disappointing: Marcus Edwards (3), Daniel Nachev (3), Søren Knudsen (2), Hakan Çalhanoğlu (1) and Eduardo Camavinga (1) all failing to get that memo.

There was some joy for Çalhanoğlu and his midfield comrades though as the Turkish maestro notched 14 assists - thanks in part to his role as set piece taker - Thiago Almada got 13 and Eduardo Camavinga had 11.

ONE MORE YEAR?

Yes, I may as well make it known now that my fifth season with Atalanta will be my final in-depth season of this save. I haven’t yet decided what I will do next…

What do I expect from this final season? I’ll continue my current recruitment method, not abandoning my morals for one last shot at glory. I hope we can challenge for the title one last time and please, please, please have a run in Coppa Italia!

I’m really excited about what’s to come from a few of my younger players. Mads Jensen has really excelled this season and become a mainstay within the first XI, Yankuba Janneh is the same and I think he could well go on to be one of the best players I have ever signed on FM. Søren Knudsen has so much potential but will have to try and move out from under the shadow of Thiago Almada. Aaron Ntella Samba at just 18 has shown he has the ability to step into the first team already, he’ll be given every opportunity to do so next season.

Just as the season came to a close I was presented with a very interesting piece of news…

Atalanta: 2023/24 Andata

June 4, 2021

I feel like I come to this point in my saves quite regularly – it’s at a big risk of going quite stale and lifeless.

Last season’s Champions League final came as a bit of a surprise to me and, to be brutally honest, I’m not sure it’s something I will see again in this save. My luck in Coppa Italia is stinking but I do hold out some hope that over a 38 game Serie A season I can compete with the big boys. £81m for Pau Torres feels like it could be our Virgil van Dijk signing…

LATE SUMMER TRANSFERS

Just before the window closed I brought in two final signings. Sticking to my rules, they were signings for the future. Federico Oliva at £4.1m from Atlético Madrid B feels like a shrewd piece of business and the American attacker could move into the senior set up before long. Fernando Demba is a player I discovered by chance at Angolan club 1 de Agosto and for the relatively minimal fee of £750k I thought he was worth a shot.

RESULTS

Let’s begin with the drama of the Champions League. It began with a laboured 1-0 win at home to Standard Liège before back to back away defeats to Atlético Madrid and Dynamo Kyiv. Things looks like they were on the turn as we blew Kyiv away 5-1 at home before finishing the group off with consecutive 0-1 defeats.

Incredibly, we managed to qualify for the knockout stages with just 6 points on the board! This was thanks to Dynamo Kyiv’s final day win over Standard Liège which allowed us to take 2nd place courtesy of our head to head record over Dynamo and goal difference over Liège.

On to Serie A! We begin the league in terrible fashion with a 0-1 loss at home to Lazio, a game in which we created next to nothing. We bounced back well by stringing three consecutive wins in the following games which included young left wing back Yankuba Janneh’s first goal for the club. Despite taking the lead twice against AC Milan we succumbed to a huge 5-3 defeat to tail off our opening five games.

Over October and November we managed to pick up maximum points from five of our seven games. Most notably this period of games included a 4-0 destruction of Roma and another first ever goal, this time for academy graduate Walter Galante.

December was such a mixed month. We began by bossing Juve away thanks to our South American duo of Brenner and Thiago Almada. We couldn’t match Inter next, it felt pivotal as Inter were quickly becoming the top contenders for the Serie A title. Yet again we bounced back, putting Udinese away thanks to three early goals.

January start with a bang! Our first league victory over Cagliari in four seasons. Following that up we destroyed Parma away from home. Then the disaster came – consecutive defeats against mid-table Bologna and a Spezia who were confounding expectations in 6th place.

We wrap up the Andata in 4th place. We’re just 2 points off second but at 8 points behind Inter in top spot there’s a very real feeling that any idea of a title challenge may well be gone for this season.

The Coppa Italia was a disaster for us this season. Parma were no match in the first round but being matched with Juventus in the Quarter Final was always going to be a big ask. Having taken them to extra time following a 0-0 draw in 90 minutes we were hopeful of penalties. Adam Hlozek’s 100th minute goal gave us the lead but we fell apart in a 9 minute period as Juve turned the game around to send us packing.

JANUARY MOVES

I made three signings in January. Again, I looked to the future as French starlet Aaron Ntella Samba came in for £3.7m from AS Monaco and Simon Bertelsen joined for £29k from FC København in another coup for our Scandinavian scouting team

The next signing was one of jumping the gun slightly. Pedro Porro is under offer from several clubs and in a moment of impulse I made the decision to bring in an experienced replacement in Alessandro Florenzi.

A few days still remain of the January transfer window – is there a chance for a few more BIG moves? Very much so…

IS THIS A GOOD SEASON?

Honestly, I can’t even give a good answer to that right now. I’ve pretty much written off a title challenge already. Coppa Italia has gone from us. We now have Manchester City in the first knockout round of the Champions League – we all know what way that is going!

Atalanta: 2023/24 Pre-Season

June 4, 2021

I said that last season felt like it should be a pivotal one and it definitely was! Disappointingly we finished 3rd in the league again, 9 points off top, but we were involved in the title race right the way through the season until the final games. We couldn’t get ourselves beyond the Quarter Final of the Coppa Italia but we made up for it by somehow progressing all the way to the big stage of the Champions League – losing out narrowly to Liverpool.

It’s a lot to live up to for this coming season. I don’t expect to match our exploits in the Champions League but we should at least look to be competitive in the knockout rounds now. My main hope is to find success in the Coppa Italia and run closer in the title race – to finish 2nd would be great. To win it? Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Following on from my post about my new recruitment strategy, this will be the quietest pre-season since the first season!

ONE IN, ONE OUT… SORT OF

Sergio Aguero’s brief stint in Italy is over. He managed 3 goals in his 21 appearances (9 starts) before making his move to Boca Juniors – a surprise choice from the former Independiente man. The only other outgoing of note so far this summer is a big one: Bosnian defender Anel Ahmedhodzic’s two seasons at Atalanta are over as he joins Real Madrid for a mighty £30.5m – a £27m profit for us in that move.

There is one transfer that I had already agreed way back in January of last season and it is that of Marcus Edwards as an end of contract signing. The attacking midfielder once dubbed a ‘mini-Messi’ by the British press, had been on my radar for a while and I swooped. It was all agreed before my intention to put a cap on new signings but also he’s one of those players I would go out of my way for anyway – having had him in one of my previous saves with Groningen.

For the youth teams, my recruitment in Scandinavia continued with the signing of Simon Brandhof for free from FC København. Closer to home I paid £100k for Sierra Leone international Tamba Mansaray from Foggia, having discovered him while keeping an eye on Walter Galante who was on loan from us to the Lega Pro club.

I dipped my toe into the South American market for the first time since bringing Brenner and Thiago Almada to the club back in 2021. Dejair Palermo is a free signing, one agreed almost a year and a half ago but only confirmed now that he has reached 18 years of age. Juan Pineda is a £35.5k steal from Independiente Santa Fe, he’s been labelled the next Freddy Rincón which is exciting! Both are well developed already despite being just 18 and I can see them playing a part int he senior squad at some point this year.

With the departure of Anel Ahmedhodzic, my replacement signing measures kicked into force. There were a few options but I eventually settled on a club record transfer of £81m for Pau Torres from Villarreal. He comes in with the tab of ‘elite centre back’ and it feels like a real statement signing from us, especially just one year after shelling out £50m for Edmond Tapsoba from Leverkusen.

FRIENDLY RESULTS

Pre-season is what it is. A fixture against a non-domestic but European team, our annual trip to China and two games against fellow Italian clubs.

New signing Marcus Edwards got himself right into my good books within just 7 minutes of play by scoring against Hertha Berlin. We’ve been using the 4-3-3 wide formation in order to utilise the widemen I’ve got within the squad.

A 4-0 victory over a full strength Juve was a great way to cap preparations for my fourth season.

THE SEASON AHEAD

It’s been a quick and easy pre-season to this point with not much movement on the transfer front.

The season ahead is a really challenging one because I honestly can’t see this side matching last year’s Champions League Final. If I don’t manage to pick up a bit of luck in the league then this save could well fizzle out to a bit of a boring finish! The Coppa Italia isn’t such a big focus for the board so I’m likely to try and use it to give some minutes to more of the younger players as I try to blood them into the first team.

Season Four incoming…

Figli Della Dea

June 4, 2021

Figli Della Dea – “sons of the goddess” (according to google translate) – is not intended to be any sort of grand scheme that will leave you in awe. It’s a very simple solution to a very simple problem.

Earlier in my updates of the 2022/23 season I mentioned my concerns about the player turnover during my (now) three seasons in charge of Atalanta. I don’t think it’s anything unnatural but, rather, for a club in this situation is is probably as you would expect. As Atalanta moved from an upper-mid-table side to one entering the questions around the title race, there has to be a gradual changing of the guard. This happens for two reasons as far as I see it:

players that are just not of the required ability to step into a title challenge;
ambitious players capitalising on our recent improvement in form and status to gain themselves moves away to ‘bigger’ clubs.

With the above two players moving out there is an obvious need to not only replace them but also improve the options we have in certain positions. It all leads to a a bit of a revolving door situation. A telling sign of this is the fact that José Luis Palomino is the only surviving member of the first choice XI I began this save with just 3 in-game years ago.

Aside from wanting to have a more stable and familiar team going forward, the player movement has also left me in a bit of a tight spot when it comes to competition squad registration. Both Serie A and the Champions League stipulate that the squad must contain a minimum of 8 players trained in Italy for 3 years between their 15th and 21st birthdays and 4 of those must have been trained by Atalanta for 3 years between their 15th and 21st birthdays.

Unable to fill our quota of homegrown players within the senior squad, I have had to often opt for leaving gaps in my registered squad to account for this. It’s not a massive issue but it’s something I want to be able to fix.

COPENHAGAMO

I’ve made no secret of my regular forays into the Scandinavian market to pilfer my fair share of high potential Norsemen, like a modern day reverse Viking.

In January 2022 I signed Tim Rönning (IF Elfsborg, Sweden), Jakob Petersen, Malthe Lassen (both Aalborg, Denmark) and Søren Knudsen (FC Midtjylland, Denmark) for a combined fee of £10.7k. In July of the same year I made a further move for Christer Hellum (Molde, Norway) for £7.5k.

In January 2023 the prices increased by a large degree but the players kept coming with the signings of Niels Poulsen, Mads Jensen and Yankuba Janneh (all FC Midtjylland, Denmark) for a combined £8.5m with another £850 (yes, £850) spent on Marc Petersen (FC København, Denmark). In the same month, just a year after joining, I sold Tim Rönning to Leicester City for £15m.

HOMEGROWN STATUS

The Scandi-nation signings join an Atalanta Youth Set up that is already much lauded in Serie A, with a familiar face/voice in Drøbak IL academy graduate Alwande Roaldsøy who joined the club before my appointment as manager.

The below table, including the signings mentioned above who remain at the club, indicates the level of home grown players in and around our senior squad or how far they are from obtaining that status.

A NEW RECRUITMENT STRATEGY

The players in green text in the above table are all returning from a loan spell in the season just gone. As you can see, if I decide to retain them for the season ahead, this will help my homegrown requirements enormously.

As I said at the beginning, it is a very simple solution. I will put more effort into integrating these promising youngsters into my matchday squads. Some are already there however most still have some way to go. The plan is to fulfill the homegrown quotas (and then some) not just by filling spots but by having players of the top quality who meet the criteria.

This moves me on to my next problem – the high player turnover. Going forward my intention is only to sign a player aged 20 years or over if it is a direct replacement for a first choice player. I feel this will allow me to keep a handle on my squad size (and by proxy my squad registration dilemma) while also allowing for the need to replace established quality with established quality. It also means I can still make signings to improve my U20 and U18 sides.

The new signing guideline won’t be any strict policy or anything like that – this is still a game and I want to treat it so – but rather just an aim. As I mention in every edition of FM, if the right player (either amazing ability or just a player I really admire) becomes available then I won’t stop myself from bringing them in.

Atalanta: 2022/23 Champions League Final

June 4, 2021

Atalanta have never reached a Champions League final before and so this feels like an occasion that should be given its own little spotlight. On the other hand, Liverpool have already played in 10 Champions League finals to this point in my save with a 70% success rate. Indeed, Klopp’s Livepool have actually won two out of the last four finals played (2019 in real life and 2022 in fiction).

THE ROAD TO THE FINAL

I have already spoken about Atalanta’s journey to this point but here is a short recap.

We somehow managed to, not only qualify from but, top our group containing Tottenham and Dortmund. Brenner’s 9 goals in 6 games unmatched by anyone across the 8 groups.

There’s no doubt that the knockout draws were kind to us this season considering the strength of teams we got against those we could have been given. Porto swept aside with ease, Gladbach were no match despite their attempted second leg heroics.

I expected a lot more of a test from English Premier League Runners Up Chelsea but consecutive 2-0 wins sealed an unprecedented Champions League final for Atalanta of Bergamo.

In some nice symmetry, while we faced an English side in our group, Liverpool were paired with an Italian side in their – a Juventus side that they made easy work of over two game. A 2-1 loss to Shakhtar (courtesy of a 90+3 minutes goal) the only blot on their copy book.

It could have been curtains for Liverpool at the earliest knockout stage – Malcom’s 90+4 minute winner (to seal his hattrick) in the second leg sparing the Reds from an away goals exit! Liverpool landed Juve again in the Quarter Finals and again notched up two victories.

Having all but sealed progression in the first half of the semi final, it seems Klopp’s men went to the Bernabeu without a care in the world. So much so that they allowed former teammate Mo Salah to grab a goal against them.

The referee for this final is José María Sánchez Martínez. The 39 year old Spaniard has an exceptional reputation and is one of the best from Spain’s La Liga. He has already refereed in 15 Champions League matches this season issuing 35 bookings and 3 dismissals. Just a few weeks ago he was the referee for the UEFA Europa Conference League final between FC Utrecht and Everton at Villa Park, garnering a personal rating of 7.7 for his performance in a match which ended in a 1-0 victory for Everton.

Neither side has any injury concerns or suspensions to be considered ahead of this showpiece game. Seven-time winners Liverpool are the bookmakers’ favourites at odds of 11/10 while Atalanta are priced at 9/4 for the victory.

There are no surprises in the Atalanta team selection. Livakovic remains the undisputed first choice in goal while Anel, Tapsoba and Palomino have made a formidable trio at the back. Pedro Porro has grown into his role as Dodo’s replacement while Matteo Ruggeri’s new contract extension has put all transfer speculation behind him. Çalhanoğlu and Camavinga’s continued growth as a central midfield pairing has seen the two become highly coveted around Europe. As Daniel Nachev and Søren Knudsen are not registered for European competition, Thiago Almada is the obvious choice for the position in behind Brenner and Hlozek who have a combined 51 goals so far this season.

The bench is filled with promise for the future with ambipedal wing back Yankuba Janneh one to particularly keep an eye on. Sergio Aguero makes the bench for his last match in his brief spell at Atalanta ahead of a move to Boca Juniors in the summer.

Liverpool’s goalkeeper and back line more or less pick themselves with this quintet that have become well acquainted with each other over the past two seasons since Söyüncü’s arrival from Leicester City. Fabinho, Gabriel Menino and Naby Keita make up a very mobile midfield three that would be the envy of most sides in Europe. 26-goal Sadio Mané and £103m record signing João Félix provide goal threats from wide positions while Roberto Firmino is the loan striker in his usual False Nine role.

Should they require it, Liverpool have a bench stacked with quality in all areas. Nuno Mendes, Florentino Luis and Curtis Jones have featured heavily in Liverpool’s play this season and will be disappointed to miss out on a starting place. While the reds also have the experience of Oxlade-Chamberlain and James Milner to count on they can also turn to the attacking ability of Malcom, Barbosa and Dembélé who have 33 goals between them in 2022/23.

Strangely the Stadion München attracted a capacity of just 69,344 – over 5,000 less than capacity. Perhaps the hefty proportion of UEFA Corporate sponsors weren’t included in the final attendance figures…

FIRST HALF KICK OFF

In any case, the crowd was not left waiting long for the game to spring into action. Liverpool took the lead after a mere 9 minutes of play. Sadio Mané doing well to find a pocket of space in the box to head home from Andrew Robertson’s cross.

Just five minutes later the scores were level. Atlanta broke quickly on the counter and Çalhanoğlu’s through pass from the right was fired home by Adam Hlozek, Alisson perhaps disappointed to have been beaten so easily at his near post.

The raucous cheering in Munich turned to stunned silence for a split second as Atalanta took the lead just before the half hour mark. Matteo Ruggeri’s delightfully disguised ‘no-look’ pass caught the Liverpool back line off guard and Brenner stole in to put the ball beyond the clutches of the scrambling Alisson.

Liverpool were level just a minute later as the fleet-footed Mané made easy work of the Atalanta defence to square the pass across goal for João Félix to tap in the equaliser. Dominik Livakovic will not look back kindly on this moment as the ball evaded his inexplicable attempts to slide feet first in an effort to stop the ball crossing his six yard box.

HALF TIME: ATALANTA 2-2 LIVERPOOL

The scores were level at the half but in truth, it was Liverpool who were looking the more dangerous.

SECOND HALF KICK OFF

Once again it was Mané central to everything Liverpool were doing as they took the lead for the second time in the game. With 53 minutes on the clock, some persistent attacking play paid off and Mané took his opportunity to put the ball under the stretching reach of Livakovic.

Twenty minutes later and Liverpool doubled their advantage. Yet again, Mané involved in the move as his cross for the right was headed in off the crosssbar by João Félix.

As Atalanta reached desperation zones in the game, it was the decision to move Edmond Tapsoba up front that paid dividends. Camavinga’s lofted ball into the box finding the Burkinabé in space behind his marker and Tapsoba glanced his header beyond the reach of Alisson.

FULL TIME: ATALANTA 3-4 LIVERPOOL

Sadly time ran out too quickly for Atalanta to find an opportunity to draw level. It’s been a great journey to this point of the competition and one I certainly didn’t expect. For that matter, it’s not one I expect to happen again in this save!

Adam Hlozek and Brenner scoring meant they finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the top goalscorer chart in the Champions League. Hlozek with 13 and Brenner with 11. Hlozek also took the most Player of the Match awards with 4 out his 11 games played while Livakovic’s 5 clean sheets was the third most in the competition, 2 behind Thibaut Courtois at the top.

As I move into my fourth season at the club I have a plan to review my transfers and squad composition – it’s something I want to delve into in more detail later. As for competitions – we need to be competitive at the top of Serie A again and should be aiming for at least the Quarter Finals of the Champions League. A Coppa Italia would go a long way to having this be deemed a successful save too…

Atalanta: 2022/23 Ritorno

June 4, 2021

My third season with Atalanta comes to an end (almost…) and there’s so much to mention. Aside from the results, there’s also the matter of how I solved one of the problem I mentioned in my last post.

Am I happy yet? Almost.

SEEING OUT THE WINTER TRANSFER WINDOW

I had mentioned my concerns about seeing a flurry of late interest in our players. In the end, it didn’t really come and the only departures were two I was happy enough to allow to leave.

Bosko Sutalo has been on the cusp of my first choice XI since the day I arrived but for various reasons has never managed to crack it. When Arsenal came calling (hello again, Arsenal FC!) with an offer of £22m I willingly accepted and allowed the young centre back to move on to pastures new. Remo Freuler has been a peripheral figure since the arrival of my dynamic midfield duo: Camavinga and Çalhanoğlu (Camanoğlu or Çalhavinga – take your pick). With 18 months left on his contract and his constant gripes about any and every trivial matter, I decided it was time to let him fly the nest – Lokomotiv Moscow the destination for a relatively cheap £7.5m.

There was only one final incoming transfer and it was another one for the future. Yet again we used our Scandinavian contacts to bring in another Danish youngster. Marc Petersen’s £850 move from FC København will help to continue my efforts to fill out the youth squads with potential talent.

RESULTS

There’s not too much more to say on our Coppa Italia campaign for this season. We faced Napoli in the Quarter Final and played abysmally. Victor Osimhen is a beast in the physicals, maybe one that I’ll consider in future windows…

While we failed in the Coppa Italia, we excelled in Europe. I would say that perhaps we got the favourable side of the draws in the competition but the semi-final win over Chelsea was especially pleasing.

I’m now facing my first Champions League Final since FM12, against a talent stacked Liverpool but one which I have already got the better of once in this save so far!

In the league, it was an up and down start to the back end run of fixtures. In between impressive performances against Genoa, Lecce and Sassuolo there were blanks drawn against SPAL and Hellas Verona – the latter managing to take maximum points from us.

In March we were undone away to Benevento, burnt by the curse of the loanee as our own Alessio Rosa scored a fantastic goal to give his temporary side the victory. We seemed to be hitting a bit of a rough patch when we couldn’t even hold our 2-0 half time lead at home to Udinese but a ray of light shone through at the end of the month when Thiago Almada’s goal gave us the win away to Roma. It was our sixth win in all six games against side with a suckling rhino on their badge.

April was a fantatic month with four wins from five as we kept up our pursuit of an unprecedented Serie A title. Playing Milan and Juventus back to back to start the month off was not an exciting prospect in my eyes but we completed a professional job against Milan thanks to Thiago Almada’s penalty before blowing Juventus out of the water – Adam Hlozek the hero with four goals and all despite going down to 10 minutes after just 18 minutes.

Things seemed to just be going our way as we came back from 2-0 down to beat Brescia 3-2 before we came up short in our travels to Bologna. Two goals in two minutes against Parma gave us a much needed bounceback win.

May brought the final six games of the season and we still occupied top spot in the league but the chasing pack were closing in after those dropped points against Bologna.

First up was our nemesis Cagliari and still we haven’t managed to beat them in the league. João Pedro’s second half penalty leveled the scores and allowed Inter and AC Milan to get within 3 points of us. We struck back against Napoli and the 4-2 scoreline makes it appear a closer game than it actually was – even despite Alejandro Gomez’s 86th minute goal… the less said about him, the better.

A trip to Fiorentina next and we played miserably. Compounded by conceding through a José Luis Palomino own goal. That result and those of the teams around us meant we slipped back to 3rd in the table. Once again we needed a reaction and got it against Lazio, scoring twice without reply in a match where we appeared to have our swagger back.

The penultimate game of the season was a trip to play against Inter. The occasion must have gotten the better of the players and they failed to get up and running at tall. Nikola Vlasic’s strike from outside the area on 57 minutes was enough to grant them the victory and, indeed, the Serie A title in our stead.

With nothing left to play for and resigned to a 3rd place finish, I sent out a second string team to play against Napoli. There were first team debuts for four players, Niels Poulsen taking full advantage to grab himself a goal. The result was irrelevant, it was a good chance to rest our first choice XI for the game to come…

Consecutive third placed finishes in the league confirmed. I’m not too disappointed as I feel it gives a good indication of how far we still are from being considered the best club in Italy. It does rankle somewhat when I consider the length of time we spent on that top spot. The gap to the top is finalised at 9 points but there are so many “What If…?” moments that have contributed to that – two draws against Cagliari being in amongst that.

THE NUMBERS BEHIND THE SEASON

Brenner’s 43(1) appearances are the most in the team but it is Dominik Livakovic who played the most minutes with 3,870.

Livakovic kept 19 clean sheets over the season, conceding 33 goals. That’s one less clean sheet but one less goal conceded since last season.

I had mentioned my annoyance at Brenner being the runaway top goalscorer and this changed somewhat in the second half of the season, owing mostly to switching Brenner and Adam Hlozek as AF/DLF. Brenner still finished the season as top scorer with 26 goals but Adam Hlozek ran him close with 25. Thiago Almada was next with 9 and Eduardo Camavinga with 6. My next aim will be trying to ensure we get more goals out of our midfielders.

Hakan Çalhanoğlu racked up the most assists with 13, Pedro Porro and Thiago Almada both registered 8 each. Interestingly Brenner was next with 7 – his move to DLF paying dividends on that front.

“BUT AREN’T YOU MISSING SOMETHING?”

Yes, there is the small matter of a Champions League final to come. Given it’s significance to me (my recent lack of European success over a number of FM editions) I want to give it a bit of an elevated status so I’ll discuss that in its own right.

I’m also planning to look more into how my squad is built and to find a more strict way to control the high player turnover we’ve experienced over the first three seasons.

Atalanta: 2022/23 Andata

June 4, 2021

I want to be happy about how the season has gone so far and, in reality, I should be but there’s just something nagging in the back of my mind about how it’s not going how I would have hoped.

Am I being dramatic? Maybe. I’ll let you make your own mind up.

DEADLINE DAY DISASTER

As always, the season had commenced but the summer transfer window had not yet been closed. I really dislike this because you can complete all of your pre-season preparations and then get hit with a dilemma out of nowhere – which is exactly what happened for me.

Following the end of pre-season, I sanctioned a further six outbound transfers without any concern. Transfers which netted us an additional £4m to add to an already overfilled transfer kitty. Then came 31st August and a bid from Real Sociedad for our last Colombian Luis Muriel. The 31 year old was keen to move and I was keen to avoid the hassle of a dressing room revolt and so he made his departure for an initial £20m (rising to £31m). I wasn’t happy about it and truthfully, I’m still not happy about it despite what happened in the months following.

I agreed deals for another three incoming signings – I’ve made a lot of signings which is something I’ll dissect later. Daniel Nachev (£4.1m from Levski Sofia) seems to be a name popping up all over FM saves right now and it’s obvious to see why. He’s a player with already very well developed attributes despite his age. Next in was a loan move for Oliver Batista Meier from Bayern Munich, the young winger was a player I’ve signed before in FM at Groningen and he comes in with an opportunity to win a permanent move if he impresses. The last signing of the summer is a “splash the cash” move for Edmond Tapsoba of Bayer Leverkusen – £45m up front seals the move for a player who will lead our defence.

RESULTS

I’m going to buck my previous trend and start with our European results. Faced with a group of Borussia Dortmund (again), Tottenham Hotspur and KRC Genk, I had already prepared myself for the eventuality that we might finish 3rd and drop into the Europa League. Somehow we managed to excel ourselves in Europe again and topped our group! Obviously the highlight of this was the 4-0 demolition of Spurs at home which saw a 92nd minute goal from youngster Shakur Omar. Brenner was the undoubted star of the groups with 9 goals in 6 games.

In Serie A, I predicted 10-12 points from our first five fixtures and I was bang on the money as we claimed four wins. I’m not sure what happened with the Sassuolo game as we just never really got going and 35 year old Francesco Caputo ran riot against us to score a hattrick.

We managed to put together another run of green circles, Edmond Tapsoba showing his steely determination from the penalty spot in consecutive games. We came unstuck again as Milan dropped us without much of a fight – a far cry from our last fixture against them which ended in a 5-0 win in our favour.

The Milan result must have fired the squad up as October was an unbeaten month for us. We had secured the win over Juventus before there were even 7 minutes on the clock, came from behind to beat Brescia and completed the jobs against Bologna and Parma. Cagliari are without a doubt our bogey team – this is now five league matches against them without a win. The positive side is that this is our first point secured against them.

PRE-SEASON II: THIS TIME IT’S PERSONAL

I’m probably in the minority here but I love a Winter World Cup. Only three of my players travelled for it, so most of them returned from the brief winter break refreshed and ready to go. We had a second pre-season scheduled in the training and five matches to further test our future switch to a 4-3-3. It’s far to say that it went well.

As December gave way to January so must also my chipper demanour allow the negativity to reappear. I’m sorry to bring the mood down again but January gave an opportunity for my talented squad to be raided again.

Dodo had become an integral part of my style of play since his arrival 18 months ago for £20m but when Barcelona throw £45m at you and the player wants to go then it’s hard to say no. Robin Gosens was the next to move and he joins Manchester City for £22.5m initially (rising to £32.5m) – I’m not too disheartened here for a player with 18 months left on their contract and who had already been displaced from the team by Matteo Ruggeri. Next was Tim Rönning, the Swedish goalkeeping giant, who joins Leicester for £15m which is all profit following his signing on a free just one year ago. Lastly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan moves to Al-Ain for £625k – I only signed him to please the board and he had no chance of getting into my first choice team ahead of anyone I already have so it’s a welcome deal all round.

Four signings came in to the club in January. Pedro Porro’s loan deal from Manchester City was made permanent for £14m in a panic move to ensure we had a long term replacement for Dodo. I’m not convinced Porro is anywhere near as good as Dodo but he’s capable enough for now.

The other three signings were yet more players to fill out the youth squads and a brutal attack on FC Midtjylland’s youth system. Niels Poulsen (£1.5m), Mads Jensen (£3.5m) and Yankuba Janneh (£3.5m) come to Bergamo.

RESULTS

Our mid-season/pre-season prep worked wonders as the season restarted. Six consecutive wins across Serie A and the Coppa Italia, which included strong statement victories over Napoli, Lazio and Inter. How great that we were also able to finally beat Cagliari! The Torino last minute winner created joy for so many reasons, not least because I bloody love an injury time winner but also as it marked 17 year old S⌀ren Knudsen’s first senior goal for the club.

The result of this incredible domestic showing means we end the Andata period of the league with a 3 point clearance at the top of the league!

SO WHY AM I NOT ECSTATIC?

We topped a difficult Champions League Group, remain in the hunt for the Coppa Italia and I’m sitting top of the table at the halfway point. I should be delighted but as I mentioned, there are just a few nagging doubts in my mind.

The turnover of players this season has been far too high for my liking. We’ve lost 8 players who were in and around the first eleven. With that being the case we’ve had to then go out and seek replacements. There’s still a week remaining of the January window and I’m expecting moves for Matteo Ruggeri, Bosko Sutalo and Thiago Almada at any moment now.

I mentioned how this could be a pivotal season and I feel it’s reflected in the transfers. This is the point where players either stay on board and propel you to being one of those heavyweights in European football or they leave while the team are riding the crest of a wave and things come crashing down around you.

I’m also concerned at our goals. With losing Luis Muriel, we’re seriously lacking in a second consistent goalscorer. Brenner leads the way this season with 20 goals in his 22 appearances and the next highest scorer is Adam Hlozek on 5. There are only four outfield players in the first team squad without a goal to date but I feel like a really successful team needs to have more players pushing to or over double figures.

Maybe I’m just trying to dampen my own expectations in case we manage to mess up this golden position we find ourselves in.

Before January ends we have Napoli at home in the next round of the Coppa Italia. In February and March we have our First Knockout Round tie of the Champions League against FC Porto.

In the league we have that fortunate opening five fixtures of the Ritorno but we end it all in May by playing three of the current top five! Just how crucial will that Inter fixture in the penultimate league game be in deciding the final destination of the Scudetto?

Atalanta: 2022/23 Pre-Season

June 4, 2021

Season three feels like it should be a pivotal one in this save. In back to back seasons we’ve progressed in the league and also shown we are no pushovers in the Champions League group stages. This time around we need to start closing the gap on the title race, move beyond the first knockout round in Europe and a Coppa Italia win wouldn’t be bad either.

With these aims in mind, the board handed me a transfer budget of around £77m – by the time the domestic season rolled around this had grown to £130m. No pressure.

When it comes to summer transfers, I have my regular methodical approach of utilising my shortlists. This pragmatic, measured approach can lead to better decision making most of the time, however, it does occasionally lead to me shooting myself in the foot. I have an inclination to not engaging in any transfer business until the contract expiry date for players passes – so in Italy I decided not to make any transfer moves until after 1st July. Already this has meant me missing out on a few potential signings.

Dele Alli was transfer listed for £54m and I had a serious look at bringing him in. By the time July came about he had been removed from the transfer list and Spurs were now looking for at least £80m. Nehuén Pérez at Atlético Madrid had a minimum fee release clause of £39.5m but just before July he signed a new contract and the clause increased to £106m. Filip Benkovic was available for a bargain of £5.5m from Lazio but Burnley swooped and sealed the deal for themselves.

SIGN HIGH REPUTATION PLAYERS

As the sub-title suggests, the board are insistent that I make a conscious effort to bring big names to Bergamo.

Before I get into the players who will ply their trade for Atalanta in this upcoming season, it’s worth explaining how that transfer budget rose so quickly from £77m to £130m. Filippo Melegoni and Lennart Czyborra to Genoa at the end of two-year loan deals were pre-arranged and gained us a combined £8.7m, Davide Bettella was being considered as a future first team contender for me but when Roma came in with £6.5m for the centre back I decided to let him leave. Christian Capone was another youngster who was moved on for a decent sum of £2.5m to German side Bochum.

Cristian Romero made his loan deal permanent last season for £14.5m and after 34 league appearances last year Chelsea came in to sign him for £29m. If the fans found that move a hard pill to swallow then they certainly weren’t happy about my decision to allow Mario Pasalic to leave for Lazio for £26m – Pasalic did make 18 appearances last season but only 11 of those were starts and with Camavinga and Çalhanoğlu as my first choice midfield pair, I had no problem in letting Mario go.

Coming in – firstly, it’s a look toward the future and another tip of the hat to our Scandinavian scouting. Christer Hellum was a £7.5k steal from Molde FK and will join the other Scandis in our U18 squad. We also brought in FC Bayern youngster Marcel Wenig on a season loan – he’ll join our U20 squad and while I haven’t been able to negotiate a future fee as yet that’s something that’s certainly under consideration depending on how he develops in the next 12 months.

Another trio of loan signings now, this time with the aim of providing cover to the first team. Rayan Aït-Nouri has a year remaining on his Angers contract and rather than pay out the £21m they are demanding, I have brought him in on a year long loan for £1.7m to test the waters as I also anticipate Robin Gosens’ departure in the near future. Pedro Porro is brought in to cover Dodo at right wing back but also with the knowledge he can play further forward if we move in that direction. Billy Koumetio gives us depth at centre back, he’s tall and comfortable with the ball at his feet – certainly another one I’ll be considering for a future permanent transfer should he integrate well enough.

Finally, the two players who fulfill our board’s vision of high reputation signings. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is a free signing following his release from Roma and Sergio Agüero comes in on a free after leaving Manchester City. Neither will be an expected starter for me this season but despite their advancing ages, both still have exceptional qualities which may come in handy as the season goes on.

FRIENDLY RESULTS

It’s been far from an intensive pre-season schedule but we’ve attempted to look at developing our alternative tactic of a back four and midfield three. For now, we’ll definitely continue with our three at the back as we have done since day one but this will be something we look to as another option when we need it.

The results were not scintillating but we had a chance to learn a lot about our new tactic and signings from these four games.

YOUTH STAFFING CHANGES

I don’t want to go in-depth here with screenshots of 30 coaches but just to mention that I decided this was the season to make wholesale changes to our U20 and U18 teams.

The only member of staff from both squads to be retained was U18 Assistant Manager Willy Sagnol. The mass changes are the beginning of me looking in depth at how we train our youth and making my own decisions about who should be available for which squad. Obviously I’ll still leave the matches up to the managers themselves but I want to be more involved in the decision making at this level.

THE SEASON AHEAD

2022/23 will be an interesting one. I’ve already outlined where I want to see improvements in our performances but one obstacle ahead of us is the 2022 World Cup. Due to the winter scheduling it has meant the Serie A season beginning on 24th July rather than in September as normal.

The squad will break at the end of October and football resumes on 31st December – I will then have to look at doing another pre-season schedule in December to ensure we’re up to speed. I don’t believe we’ll be losing too many players to International Duty for the World Cup so hopefully this will stand us in a better position than others at the top of the table.

As always I’m keen to look at our opening five fixtures: Genoa home, Lecce away, SPAL away, Hellas Verona home, Sassuolo away. Playing two of the newly promoted sides and three others that we have reasonable records against so far, I’d love to go all out and say we’ll get 15 points but I’d settle or anything around the 10-12 mark for now.

We still await the Champions League draw for the season ahead and the schedule for that will obviously be condensed due to the World Cup also. It’s looking like a busy September/October for us!

As you can read from the above, we’ve not really touched the transfer budget for the season yet. With £130m still available to spend and plenty of time left in the summer transfer window, don’t rule out a marquee signing… I’m just so happy with the squad that I’m not sure where I’d bring one in!

Atalanta: 2021/22 Ritorno

June 4, 2021

This time last season it was a cautionary tale of not acting in the January transfer window. This time around I completed all my incoming business early as I discussed in the last update. The only action to happen after this point was the sale of Matteo Pessina to Torino for the sum of £9.5m, he’d only made 12 appearances for me since I began with Atalanta with just one of those being as a starter.

RESULTS

As before, we’ll begin with the European results. As I mentioned, we would face Atlético de Madrid in the first knockout round. In the first leg we pulled the game back to 2-2, away goals in our favour, after conceding two early goals. Sadly Donyell Malen struck a fierce long range goal in injury time to give Madrid the victory but the away goals did give us cause to be optimistic. Atléti came to Bergamo to finish the job swiftly and Álvaro Morata’s 6th minute goal did just that for them in the second leg. We pushed but Robin Gosens’ second half dismissal left us a bit toothless and we succumbed to a 4-2 aggregate defeat. No great shame given the opposition.

In the Coppa Italia we couldn’t repeat our escapades of last season and were struck out by Juventus in the semi-final. Yet again we were fighting back from a losing position – in both legs we came from a goal behind to draw 1-1. With the tie going to penalties both sides were four for four going into the last round of penalties. Sadly for us, Cristian Romero’s weakly struck effort down the middle and Juventus converted their fifth to seal progression to the final.

In Serie A we began the Ritorno with that tricky opening five fixtures. We were aiming to better our 9 points gained in the same fixtures in the Andata and confidence was high after taking maximum points from Roma and Inter before holding Juve to (another) draw! We just took too long to get going against Napoli and simply never got going at home to Udinese, despite the visitors being reduced to 9 men with ten minutes to go.

Putting those results behind us, we went on to record four consecutive league wins. Brenner hitting a neat bit of form with 7 goals in his next 3 matches including back to back hattricks. We battled hard with table toppers Lazio, going a goal down to taking a 2-1 lead before collapsing to defeat in the second half.

We were certainly no fools in April, kicking the month off with a 5-0 devastation of AC Milan – one of the teams chasing Lazio at the summit. As you can see, we had a wide range of goalscorers throughout the undefeated month. Youngster Alessio Rosa getting himself back in amongst the goals.

As we headed into May we knew that 1st and 2nd place were beyond our reach, however, we had a great chance to climb to 3rd and improve our previous season’s league position by one place. All we had to do was hold our nerve and see our the remaining four games.

We Spurs’d it against Cagliari before blowing away already relegated Empoli and completing the job against Hellas Verona. So it came down to the final matchday against Parma. Juve were 3 points behind us but would leapfrog us based on head to head record if they could close that gap.

We went 2-0 down inside 10 minutes and so it was the proverbial “squeaky bum time” for La Dea. Anel’s headed goal from a corner gave us a glimmer of hope and lo and behold in the 92nd minute, Czech wonderkid Adam Hlozek found the back of the net to secure that all important point to seal our 3rd place! I’ve romanticised this ever so slightly since Juventus ended up losing to Torino thus meaning we’d have taken 3rd place even with a loss. A bit of an anti-climax I suppose.

Lazio became the first side to disrupt Juventus’ Serie A dominance since AC Milan way back in 2010/11. It was a bad season for The Old Lady as they just about secured Champions League football, no surprise there then that Ivan Piazza was subsequently given the big boot of Italy.

NUMBER TIME

A blog isn’t a blog until you start throwing numbers about like they’re COVID fines for houseparties.

Dominik Livakovic played the most minutes this season with 3,990 minutes spent between the sticks. That was 44 appearances and 21 clean sheets with 34 goals conceded.

Despite leading on minutes played it was Brenner who made the most appearances with 44 starts and 4 substitute appearances. The bargain signing for £10m also takes the plaudits for being the highest goalscorer at the club with 28 goals laying on a further 7 for his teammates. Luis Muriel scored 20 goals himself.

Speaking of assists it is Dodo’s 11 that lead the way from right back – he also registered 6 goals of his own. Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Thiago Almada are joint second on assists with 10.

Young Alessio Rosa managed to record the best Goals Per 90 minutes with 1.33 – this thanks to his 5 goals from 2 starts and 7 sub appearances.

FUTURE PLANNING

This season may have seemed like it just fizzled to an end as we just matched last season’s European exploits and fell short in the Coppa Italia semi-finals. However, we did see progress on the Serie A front by exceeding last season’s points tally (and then some) and in turn managed to improve upon our final position from last year. It’s noteworthy that our league points this season would have been enough to see us win the league last season.

Looking ahead to how we can improve, it really is hard to say. I’m quite happy with the squad I’ve assembled so far – sure, there are players I could bring in that would improve upon it immeasurably but I’m not quite ready to make £100k/week contracts the norm at Atalanta just yet.

José Luis Palomino is 32 years old now and I feel this is an area I will need to look at in the near future. Boško Šutalo and David Heidenreich have both proved useful when rotated into the squad this season while Davide Bettella will return from his loan at Monzo as the season ends. Whether any of the three will be ready to become an immediate replacement for Palomino or not is a big question.

We’re resigned to losing Papu Gómez as he refuses to discuss an extension to his current contract but I’m not too concerned here as Thiago Almada has already proven his worth and been our first choice at AMC this season. Hakan Çalhanoğlu and Eduardo Camavinga have started to forge a decent partnership in the midfield but I feel that both need to significantly step up in the next season in terms of both goals and assists.

Luis Muriel is 31 now and Arsenal have started to sniff around him again (bloody Arsenal!). I’m sure I could convince him to remain in Bergamo but if an offer comes in that is too good to refuse then I will need to consider if Adam Hlozek is ready to step into his place. If not then then it’ll be back to the Transfer Shortlist I head – already having moved 3 players from the One Year Interest list to the Immediate Interest list.

Aims for next season: consolidate our place in the top 3 of Serie A, return to the final of the Coppa Italia, advance in the Champions League. All very simple indeed.

Atalanta: 2021/22 Andata

June 4, 2021

THE WONDERKIDAVINGA CHRONICLES

Before the summer transfer window had finished, there was time for two more signings to be made. With the loss of Djimsiti and Tolói, we were light at the back and so it was back to the One Year Interest list I ventured to pull another rabbit out of the hat – Anel Ahmedhodzic for a mere £3.5m from Malmö has turned out to be an absolute steal!

The final summer signing was the one I deliberated over for long enough for me to consider it a well thought out decision. Eduardo Camavinga is one of the most highly rated young midfielders in Europe at the moment and so it seemed hard to believe that I could actually convince him to make the move to Bergamo. £46m (rising to £58m with clauses) is a massive investment for me but after plenty of discussion in my FM Slack channel I plucked up the courage to confirm the deal.

The last big departure of the summer is Marco Sportiello. I had mentioned that I felt he would be part of the vital spine in the team but he ended up rotating plenty with Gollini toward the end of last season and I feel that the signing of Livakovic is a more than adequate replacement in goal. A less than impressive £2.4m (rising to £3m) was the price we received for his departure to BSC Young Boys of Switzerland.

RESULTS

We begin with our Serie A fixtures and that difficult opening five from which I guessed we’d accumulate 9 points. What a guess that was! Brenner’s double on the opening day secured an audacious comeback away to Roma before he grabbed another in a fine victory at home to Inter. We lost at Juventus thanks to a ridiculously fluke effort from a mis-hit Danilo cross. Thiago Almada’s first goal set us on our way to the win against Napoli before we came up short away to Udinese.

In October we claimed four wins from four league games with 11 goals scored and just 2 conceded. Eight different goalscorers shows not only our ability to get goals from all areas of the pitch but also the squad depth to be able to rotate with confidence.

We had less luck in November, drawing a blank in consecutive league games – continuing our inability to claim victory over Lazio with a loss in a Lombardo Derby with Milan. We bounced back with ease against Torino, Dodo continuing his impressive first season with us by scoring his third Atalanta goal in Serie A.

December saw us kick on from that Torino win to claim three wins in our next four games. Particularly pleasing to see Hakan Çalhanoğlu getting himself on the score sheet along with youngsters Alessio Rosa and Matteo Ruggeri. There was also a first goal for the expensive investment Camavinga!

REUNITED AND IT FEELS SO GOOD

I talked last season about how important I feel the January transfers can be. This time around I think we have as strong a first choice XI (and rotation options) as we can get at this point. Despite that, I was happy to make some moves that I felt would benefit us in the long run and satisfy that board vision of signing players for profit.

The first move was actually a departure as our back up goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini left for RB Salzburg in a £7m move. This was all pre-planned as we had already secured the free signing of 6 foot 7 inch giant Tim Rönning from IF Elfsborg. He’ll be a good deputy for Livakovic although I don’t see him as that far off pushing for a first team place. Another signing made for the future is that of young Adam Hlozek for a bargain £2.7m from Sparta Prague. He’s already in double figures for both caps and goals for the Czech National Team and will no doubt see his place in my starting XI in the near future.

Sam Lammers never really made it into my thinking for Atalanta and so I was happy to allow him to depart for DL Pro in China for £6m – a net loss on what the club paid for him before I arrived. There was also a move for 24 year old Marco Carraro to Genoa for £1.5m which freed up some more space in the squad.

The signing I was most pleased of, however, is the subject of the title of this subsection. Carles Aleña is a player you may remember from literally any FM save I have ever done since his introduction to the database. When I got the notification to say his contract was due for expiry in 6 months, I moved immediately. The deal was sealed and I coughed up with the agreed £1.6m to sign him early. The prodigal son returns!

Those players aside we’ve also brought in three Danish youngsters that will either see us earn a serious profit in a few years or push themselves into first team contention. I’ll not bore you with the full details but here they are: Jakob Petersen (goalkeeper, £2.5k from AaB), Malthe Lassen (defender, £3.2k from AaB) and Søren Knudsen (attacking midfielder, £5k from Midtjylland).

The final matches of the Serie A andata this season saw Atalanta continue a period of good form by claiming maximum points. We made easy work of these three games, continuing to see goals coming from all sorts of players – even a first Atalanta goal for new signing Hlozek!

We finish this round of fixtures sitting 3rd in the table among the usual suspects.

We had two home fixtures in the Coppa Italia just a week apart in January. With us being in the midst of a good run, I’ll admit to an ounce of complacency going into the Fiorentina match and it very nearly backfired. Thankfully Czech superstar Adam Hlozek was on hand to seal progression in the second half of extra time. We left it late again in the Quarter Final, relying on a 93rd minute winner to see us through against Torino – but who doesn’t love a last minute winner?!

I promised an epic in Europe and I’m sure this won’t disappoint on that front.

We kicked things off in style by putting Dortmund to the sword at Gewiss Stadium before labouring to a solitary goal victory away to Anderlecht.

We got so much more than I expected from the double header with Liverpool – a point at Anfield and somehow managing to turn them over when they came to Bergamo.

With qualification already secured, we switched to our newly developed third tactic for the final two fixtures. Luis Muriel’s fine form in the group continued as he championed our victory at Signal Iduna Park before a much rotated side finished the group unbeaten for us by completing a double over Anderlecht.

THE SEASON SO FAR

Who would have thought that I’d top a Champions League group containing Liverpool and Dortmund never mind remaining unbeaten! We’re also sitting in a more than respectable position in the league.

The squad is probably further along than I’d have expected at this point not only those who are first choice but I feel we’ve built a good depth and have impressive young players pushing through.

THE THIRD TACTIC

This tactic represents a bit of a cross over from The LQ Save – having created a tactic for OGC Nice, I decided I liked the look of some of the link up play. A few swift changes to individual aspects and it’s now fit to play as our third tactic.

There’s not too much special going on here. We’re capable of playing the ball out from the back so that is very much encouraged. A switch to a four man backline will give us a different dimension for the odd times that we look to be struggling with our usual three – or in a heavy run of fixtures where I might need to rest and rotate.

Sorry, no fancy tactics names here. It’s simply the fmadventure 433

Stats-wise, it is Luis Muriel and Brenner leading the scoring charts with 14 goals each. Dodo has 8 assists with Brenner and Çalhanoğlu one behind on 7. Dominik Livakovic has conceded 20 goals in 29 games with 13 clean sheets along the way.

THE RITORNO

Just under two weeks of the January window remain and I’m fairly confident with the business we’ve done so far. The only moves I’d expect are potentially shifting some more dead weight.

We have that aggressive start to the ritorno with Roma (home), Inter (away), Juventus (home), Napoli (away) and Udinese (home) – we’d surely have to aim for higher than 9 points this time around.

February will prove to be a tricky task as we have a Coppa Italia 2 leg tie with Juventus before the first leg of our Champions League knockout tie with Atlético de Madrid.

Champions League qualification remains the aim and I’d really expect to improve on our 4th place finish from last season. Juventus in the Coppa Italia are stern opposition but if we can manage to squeeze by them, I fancy our chances in the final.

Atalanta: 2021/22 Pre-Season

June 4, 2021

I’d anticipated that it would be a busy summer for us and that prediction certainly came true. We had a coveted squad and I had to be active in replacing any outgoing players. So far, I’m pleased with the business done but only time will tell if I’ve made the right decisions.

OUTGOING TRANSFERS

The season had barely finished and I was fielding calls for first choice performers. Three senior players left the squad in June in total.

Hans Hateboer followed Timothy Castagne to Leicester City in a £10.25m move, it’ll be interesting to see how they rotate between those two. Next to go was one of last year’s joint top scorers – Duván Zapata departing for Arsenal for an initial £40m potentially rising to £53m. Rafael Tolói made it a trio of moves to England as he joined the champions Liverpool in a deal that will net us £13.5m.

Several deals had already been done before I arrived for players who were out on loan, I won’t mention them by name but we’ve profited to the tune of £33m for them. The deals were not yet done as we also let Berat Djimsiti leave for Lyon for an initial £4m rising to £8m, Alexey Miranchuk joined him for another £13.75m and the final big name departure was Ruslan Malinovskyi to join Zapata at Arsenal for £16.75m rising to £19m.

In total, so far, we’ve seen twenty-nine players leave the club between transfers and contracts expiring. Six of those were first team involved so definite replacements required.

GOT MILIK?

First off, I have to mention my six month pursuit of Arkadiusz Milik. I anticipated losing at least one of Ilicic, Muriel or Zapata and had lined up the Polish striker as an option with his contract due to expire at the end of the 20/21 season. Sadly, this never materialised as the Napoli man made a move to Arsenal instead – bloody Arsenal!

Fear not, however, as I had one other lined up who potentially has a lot more to be excited about… 21 year old Brenner comes in for £10m from São Paulo, his dual Italian nationality meaning a double win as he doesn’t occupy a non-EU slot! If that wasn’t excitement enough he’s joined by 20 year old Thiago Almada from Vélez – the Argentine attacking midfield is a perfect successor for Papu Gomez and also is an Italian dual national… result!

Cristian Romero’s loan deal from Juventus was made permanent for the agreed fee of £14.5m. Dodo’s signing from Shakhtar for £15m is excellent business to replace Hateboer and Kostas Tsimkas is loaned in from Liverpool for the season with an optional fee of £11.75m agreed.

The business doesn’t quite end there as Hakan Çalhanoğlu comes in from £19.75m from Milan. After much consideration I also made the move for Dominik Livakovic from Dinamo Zagreb who is good enough to immediately step in as our Number 1.

FRIENDLY RESULTS

Five fixtures were lined up which included a foreign tour to China. The results were good, even if we had to fight harder than I’d hoped for a few of them. New signing Dodo was a particular delight as he scored twice in his first two games and was a constant danger throughout the pre-season period.

THE SCOUTING METHOD

Occasionally a player comes up that I move for in an instant with little time to process though – this season you can look to Livakovic and Çalhanoğlu for that. However, generally I take a lot of time to consider my options and I do this through the use of the shortlist feature.

I have two shortlists set up – One Year Interest and Immediate Interest. As I spacebar smash my way through the season, players pop up here and there. If I find them of any brief interest then they go onto the One Year list for the period or, well… a year.

These players come to my attention through the social feed, scouting centre, playing against them or maybe just someone I’ve decided to look at. If I feel a player in my current squad may be on the verge of an exit, I also use the Find Similar Players option to search for like fitted players in order to make sure I’m always making an upgrade on them.

In the months before a transfer window, I assess my One Year list which can at times reach up to and beyond 50 souls. At this point I look individually at each – attributes, stats, performances, injuries – and pick out a few to transfer over to the Immediate Interest list. This then becomes my selected target list for the upcoming window.

It’s hardly innovative thinking but it’s a tried and trusted method I’ve used for some time to make sure I don’t have any last minute scrambling to replace anyone.

WHAT’S IN STORE FOR 2021/22?

Well, Champions League football will return to Gewiss Stadium. We’ve been drawn as 3rd seeds into Group G along with English Champions Liverpool, Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund and Belgian runners-up RSC Anderlecht. Oh, this is going to be fun.

As always I like to begin the season by looking at our first five fixtures and this season we’ve been dealt a cruel hand. Roma (away), Inter (home), Juventus (away), Napoli (home) and Udinese (away). I’m fairly confident of getting back at Udinese after our last loss to them away, I’d also like to think we’re capable of beating Napoli at home and taking a point or more from Roma. Inter could be tricky enough but with a fully fit squad a draw is a must. Juventus away is anyone’s guess but I’d happily take a point right now. Prediction? Minimum of 9 points.

With all of the talk of transfer dealing being said, let’s not forget that there’s still two weeks left of the transfer window and a certain Eduardo Camavinga has been on my radar. The rumoured £50m+ price tag is enough to make my eyes water but never say never! I have £55m left in the transfer war chest and £229k/week remaining in the wage budget.

There’s also still the possibility that Josip Ilicic, Alejandro “Papu” Gomez and Luis Muriel will see some late interest and decide their future lies away from the Atalanta Adventure.

It’s shaping up to be another exciting one in Bergamo.

Atalanta: 2020/21 Ritorno

June 4, 2021

As Andata turns to Ritorno, so also my attention was on the Winter Transfer Window. This will hardly be an opinion that breaks on new ground but I do firmly believe that the business you do in January defines your season’s outcome, potentially more so than what happens in summer.

JANUARY MOVES – OR LACK THEREOF

I took January cautiously, perhaps more cautiously than I should have, as you will soon see in the results in the Ritorno phase.

Firstly to outgoing transfers. Amad Diallo’s move to Manchester United was confirmed and we benefited to the tune of £23m. There were a further four permanent departures early on in January – none of whom were even remotely near to first team football so they barely warrant mentioning by name, other than to mention that brought in a further £800k to our accounts.

Eric Garcia (Manchester City) was a player I had tracked in the early part of the season in the knowledge that he was determined to leave the club on a free transfer in the summer. As January came I made my move and Garcia was keen but eventually decided his future lay with Borussia Dortmund. Fresh off the rejection, I brought in El Bilal Touré on loan from Ligue 1 Reims – an optional fee of £5m was attached.

With Touré coming in, it allowed me the chance to move Sam Lammers out on loan to our affiliate SPAL along with midfielder Matteo Pessina. In my thinking, the transaction’s benefits were simple: Lammers would have first team football to develop (albeit in the league below) and we would still have a capable backup option in Touré. Should Touré impress in his brief stints in the team then we could move to secure him full time.

I had expected that at some point we’d see a late move for one of our first team representatives and on deadline day it came – PSG wanted Martin de Roon. The Dutchman was interested in the wealthy Parisien club (heaven knows why) and I felt it wasn’t worth the hassle of rejecting the move. De Roon is a good players but was one who rotated in and out of the squad with Remo Freuler. £13.25m (rising to £17m) was agreed and de Roon left.

Normally in this situation I’d panic buy and bring in a replacement last minute. It almost happened as I got to discussing terms with Aaron Ramsey (Juventus/Zebre) with a view to a £14m move, however, I backed out on the basis that Ramsey would offer no significant future sell-on value and I could instead call up young Simone Panada instead to back up Remo Freuler.

RESULTS

I’ll begin with European competition and our Champions League First Knockout tie with Liverpool. Despite taking an early lead in the first leg, Liverpool proved to be too strong and completed a 4-2 aggregate win – you probably don’t need me to tell you that there was a penalty involved, it is Liverpool after all.

We fared much better in the domestic cup, firstly making an assured victory over Inter Milan at the Giuseppe Meazza before a 5-2 aggregate win against Sassuolo in the semi-final to set up a meeting with Lazio in the showpiece match. Maybe it was the influence of the match being played at Lazio’s Olimpico stadium – so much for neutral ground – although truthfully, we simply lost out to two very well taken goals. Ilicic’s early finish gave us brief hope before Immobile and Pereira stole that away.

We began the Ritorno of Serie A in fine form, claiming another point against Inter before winning three on the trot against Torino, Spezia and Crotone respectively. Bilal Touré claiming his first Atalanta goal against Spezia. Cagliari managed to complete a league double over us before we limped to a solitory goal victory at home to Benevento.

The months of March and April were decidedly less kind to us as we limped to just two wins in our next seven games. Despite that there were highlights in wins over AS Roma and Milan, with Juve actually being quite fortunate to take all three points against us.

As we entered the final straight, it was obvious that a rapid upturn in form would be required. The players responded by claiming 12 consecutive points – games which included goals in back-to-back games for 17 year old Alessio Rosa on his second and third subsitute appearances. A heavily rotated side, in anticipation of the mid-week Coppa Italia final against the same, lost convincingly to Lazio.

Back to full strength for the Sampdoria game, we were assured of at least 5th place in the league which would satisfy the board. We were joint on points with AC Milan who sat in 4th place – we were a win apiece on head to head record and AC Milan had a one goal advantage in the next deciding factor of goal difference. As it happens, these measures weren’t required as we came out firing against Sampdoria while AC Milan drew a stalemate with Benevento. Champions League football will return to the Gewiss Stadium for 2021/22!

It was a poor year for Roma and Napoli however it is Spezia, Crotone and Genoa who take the plunge down to Serie B. Juventus had to work for it but secured the league yet again.

THE VITAL STATS

I mentioned previously that I wanted to make use of a larger squad and that fact came up regularly in press conferences. The local journalists like to question me on the fact that I used a total of 30 different players across the season. Rotation is key!

José Luis Palomino played the most games with a staggering 46 appearances – 3,862 minutes in total.

We used three goalkeepers across the season. Marco Carnesecchi played just two Coppa Italia matches, keeping one clean sheet and conceding twice in the other. Marco Sportiello was my first choice to begin with and he played 26 times with 11 clean sheets and 30 conceded. Pierluigi Gollini returned from a bad injury before Christmas and was reintroduced to the squad with 23 appearances and 8 clean sheets – 26 goals conceded.

Leading the way on assists was Ruslan Malinovskyi who set up 9, managing to score just 1 for himself. Mario Pasalic set up 8 with 2 goals of his own. This is perhaps indicative of a central manner of playing. There were assists from 15 different players in total.

Duván Zapata and Josip Ilicic lead the scoring charts with 18 goals, Ilicic grabbing his from 24 starting appearances (20 sub) as opposed to Zapata’s 40 starts (5 sub). Luis Muriel wasn’t far behind with his 15 goals in 33 starts (10 sub). We had 17 different goalscorers in the season.

We were the top scorers in Serie A with 64 goals but conceded the 9th fewest with 43 passing us. Defensively there is a lot to work on.

Our home record placed us 2nd in the standings with 43 points at the Gewiss, losing just twice on our own territory. Away from home we were less impressive at 7th in the table and a goal difference of -1 on our travels.

2021/22 PLANS

Champions League football has been secured but I feel again that we will have to contend with interest in our players. Currently the vast majority of the first team squad are coveted by either bigger clubs in Europe or those elsewhere who are renowned for having large financial clout.

I have a current shortlist of 18 players of various positions who are on my radar. Whether I move for them or not will largely be dictated by what happens within my own squad. I have six players currently on loan at Atalanta and one is a possible for a permanent deal – defender Cristian Romero. His £15m buyout clause is almost a steal for a player of his quality. Sadly El Bilal Touré has not done enough to convince me with his 2 goals in only 4 starts and 11 sub appearances and will return to Reims.

It’s looking like the Summer of 2021 might be quite busy around Bergamo!

Atalanta: 2020/21 Andata

June 4, 2021

Serie A is delightfully formatted into a proper round-robin format. A team will play each of the other 19 teams in the first half of the season (Andata) before facing off against each again in the same order in the second half of the season (Ritorno).

TALKING TACTICS

Where would a first season post be without talking about the starting tactic? As you’ll remember from the pre-season post, I had some club vision promises to fulfil with my set up. I also had my own wish of a three man defence to factor in.

This was the fruit of my Beta-labour with Manchester City. After a lot of tinkering it generally gave me what I wanted. It fared well in pre-season and I was confident of hitting the ground running once the season started.

RESULTS

We’ll start with domestic football – I mentioned my first five league fixtures in my pre-season post and boastfully declared my confidence. I was hoping for a minimum of 10 points and things started so well with a hard earned draw at home to Inter Milan. We had to work hard again to secure a point away to Torino but I called it an acceptable result. After beating Spezia 4-0 my confidence was sky high but a draw with Crotone and no points at home to Cagliari brought me back down to earth with a bump.

The reality check appeared to be exactly what was needed as we went unbeaten over the next four games which included a great away win over AS Roma thanks to Duván Zapata’s seventh goal of the season. Milan away was another reminder of the perils of complacency but also the perfect set up to an unbelievable result against champions Juventus (Zebre). Young Czech prospect Vorlicky grabbed his first senior goal against Fiorentina before Luis Muriel locked down the points against Udinese.

On our trip to Naples we were found wanting a pizza the points, partly thanks to Hans Hateboer’s early second half red card. The wheels were starting to wobble slightly as Hellas Verona staged an upset at the Gewiss but it was Hateboer atoning for his dismissal that kick started a comeback run of four undefeated. Perhaps the most enjoyable result of the bunch was the 2-2 draw with Lazio as Alexey Miranchuk’s late, late winner had me punching the air in delight in my own living room just after midnight.

It was a less than half-full Gewiss Stadium that witnessed Atalanta get this one over the line against Genoa in the First Round of the Coppa Italia. The result set us up with a Quarter Final fixture away to Inter Milan.

We were served up an unenviable Champions League group in PSG, Manchester United and Celtic.

PSG came to the Gewiss and were sent marching home with nothing to show for their travels. We came from behind against Celtic to put ourselves atop the group with maximum points from the opening two games. Our trip to Old Trafford was fruitless and the two goals scored make it appear a slightly closer game than it was in reality. We performed better when United came to Bergamo but a Fernandes penalty awarded by VAR (shocker) gave the visitors the points.

Parc Des Princes was the scene of a tactical masterclass as we nullified every PSG threat going, the point setting up an exciting final match day. As we sat in 3rd place, two points behind United and three behind PSG. All we had to do was win, thanks to Zapata we did just that as United claimed the victory over PSG to top the group.

LET’S TALK ABOUT STATS, BABY

It wouldn’t be a Football Manager blog without some reference to stats.

xGoals is the big thing this year, isn’t it? We have an xG in the league of 29.68 goals in our 19 games played. We scored 37 goals. What can we glean from the comparison of those two figures? Very little in my opinion. The numbers are a nice metric to look at but, as with any statistic, in isolation they don’t really tell you much about us. Are we outscoring expectation because we’re just so clinical in the final third or are we creating few truly great chances and just lucking out on a few strikes here and there?

Continuing with goals – Duván Zapata leads the charts with 13 (10 League, 3 Europe) with Josip Ilicic just behind on 10 (8 League, 1 Europe, 1 Cup) and Luis Muriel on 8 (7 League, 1 Europe).

Ruslan Malinovskyi is our unsung hero. He leads the assist chart with 6 and has also scored one of his own. It may not be high numbers at this stage but he’s at the heart of a lot of what we do, driving on from the midfield where he plays the Mezzala role. His 13.7km per 90 minute distance covered is key to a lot of what we do in the build up to attacks.

THE ANDATA IN REVIEW

We’re alive in Europe and in the domestic cup. We occupy 5th place in the league with the top four well within our sights. The team are becoming familiar with our first choice system and I’ve nailed down what I believe to be my strongest XI – although I do have plenty of room for rotation while still maintaining a strong team.

Football Manager is a game that I’m continually learning and today’s lesson is as follows: My assistant does not always know best.

Ok, so he’s still not my choice of assistant but, still, you have a full complement of backroom staff to provide a wealth of knowledge and support when you need it most. That being said, it doesn’t mean I should take on board every tactical suggestion from my assistant as from game-to-game he attempted to have me alter the Team Instructions to the point that I was no longer playing my own system!

Onwards and upwards with the Ritorno on our doorstep. We ‘return’ with our opening five league fixtures again at the opposite venues: Inter (away), Torino (home), Spezia (away), Crotone (home) and Cagliari (away) – I will be making no bold predictions this time around.

We’ll also have our Coppa Italia Quarter Final at Inter Milan and the Champions League Knockout double header against none other than current champions of England (but not English) Liverpool!

In my next post I’ll be reviewing the Ritorno, remaining cup fixtures and not forgetting – the January transfer window of my first season!

Atalanta: 2020/21 Pre-Season

June 4, 2021

PLANNING THROUGH THE BETA

Nowadays, the FM calendar essentially starts from the moment the beta has been released. I’ve seen plenty of people plough through two or three seasons before the full game is officially published but I just can’t bring myself to doing that. I see FM release day as almost like Christmas Day – to open my present before then would be almost sacrilegious.

That being said, I do still play at the beta stage but usually only for a few hours which amount to a couple of in-game months. It allows me a chance to get comfortable with any UI changes and get a feel for the Match Engine again. During the beta, I experimented a bit with Man City and got the bare bones of the tactic I aim to begin FM21 with.

ARRIVING AT ATALANTA

I wouldn’t usually devote a whole post to a pre-season update but there was plenty of work to be done before I decided I was ready for competitive football.

Atalanta, on the whole, is in relatively good shape. The bank balance is a healthy £22.6m in the black, the squad is strong and we have Champions League to look forward to. Despite these things, there is always room for improvement.

CLUB VISION

The Atalanta board have defined their expectations in the club vision screen. Despite only one of the overall expectations (across Club Culture and the 5 Year Plan) being noted as ‘Required’, I will make extensive efforts to try and fulfill all of them.

The board have outlined a particular style of play in preferring high-tempo pressing and attacking football, alongside the vague description of ‘entertaining’ as a favoured importance. I think I’ve set my tactic up reasonably well to provide the board with what they want in this area and the pre-season results are definitely encouraging in that respect.

Developing players using the club’s youth system is marked as ‘Desired’, given this is the bread and butter of the vast majority of FM players I can say that I’m confident this will not be a problem. We have Superb Youth Facilities, Excellent Academy Coaching and Exceptional Youth Recruitment and in the famously misquoted words:

“If you build it, they will come”

— (not quite) Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner, Field of Dreams [1989]

The final part of the Club Culture is to sign players from the lower levels of the domestic game. This will give me a good reason to keep an eye on the happenings in Serie B and Serie C. Atalanta already have a great many affiliate clubs within Italy’s football system and so I’ll regularly scour their ranks in an effort to scoop up the next non-lega to leggenda.

I absolutely love a 5 Year Plan and FM is no different!

Starting with the most important, the board expect me to work within their wage budget. It’s not something that’s ever been an issue for me as I tend to watch the pennies quite well, however, as you’ll see shortly this is an area that requires a little attention at Atalanta in the immediate term.

Sticking with finance related matters, the club expect the signing of young players to develop for profit. As with the developing players in the Club Culture, this is almost a given for most FM players and it’s something that shouldn’t really present any problems.

Expanding the stadium and growing the club’s reputation are both dependent on being successful on the pitch. I’ll need to ensure we fight well in Europe to get that essential prize money which will fund the stadium works, this success along with signing the right sort of players will also surely go a long way to seeing our reputation soar.

In the immediate term, I feel the board’s expectations are very reasonable.

Progressing from our Champions League group is hard to determine before the draw takes place, however, it’s not unreasonable to think we should be in with a reasonable chance of finishing in the top two of most groups.

The club don’t place too much weight on domestic cup success which will allow me to rotate the team for those games and keep the first choice players fresh. Expecting a 5th/6th place finish in the league is generous for a club which has finished 3rd in the previous two seasons. I’m happy to accept this with the obvious intention to go one better and retain a top four place and the Champions League football that it brings.

THE SQUAD

One of the reasons I decided to plump for a higher reputation club this time around was because I wanted to make use of a larger playing squad. I’m notoriously strict about keeping a small group of players and minimal rotation between matches. This will simply not be an option at Atalanta. As I cast my eye across the senior, U20 and U18 squads I discovered that we had an eye watering 172 players on the books!

I’m not someone who likes to stock up on legions of wonderkids so this size of playing staff is well in excess of what I want and/or need. Added to that, we’re currently operating with a £4.6k per week overspend on wages according to our budget and given that the board would like me to work within said budget, moving a number of players on is a key priority.

Immediately I began to draw up a list of players who would be making their exit from the Gewiss Stadium. What I had forgotten is that I had disabled the first transfer window, as I didn’t intend to make any signings, which means that none of the dead wood will be leaving us until January. Although I was allowed to ship a few players off to affiliate clubs on loan for the season, which means that four of our younger squad players head off to SPAL with another going to Cremonese.

There are already six players who were already out on loan to other clubs with an agreement in place for the transfer to be made permanent in addition to the pre-agreement for high rated wideman Amad Diallo to join Manchester United in January. The total we expect to bag from these transfers is a cool £58m.

BACKROOM STAFF

On my taking over, Atalanta already had an almost full complement of coaching, medical and transfer staff with just a few spots waiting to be filled. One thing I never do is to go into a club and sack the coaching staff, I don’t know why – it’s like the coding of the game understands sentiment. Alas, it’s something I just don’t do and won’t make a start of doing now either. So we’ll let the staff see out the remainder of their varying contracts and decide further then (if I’ve not been sacked by then myself!)

I did make moves to fill the few remaining spots, bringing in two Performance Analysts, a Recruitment Analyst, a first team coach and a U18 Assistant manager. I won’t bother you with the details of all four but I do feel the last two are worth mentioning.

Dennis Bergkamp comes in as a first team coach with the intention of taking on responsibility for the Technical Attacking area. He has the attributes to make the move a no-brainer but besides that fact… it’s Dennis Bergkamp!

Willy Sagnol takes up the role of assisting our U18 manager. I couldn’t resist this one. Watching the FC Bayern team of the early 2000s in Champions League action was my first real foray into ‘foreign’ football and I instantly fell in love with the teams they had around that era. One player that I idolised was Willy Sagnol.

FRIENDLIES

The pre-season started with the obvious First XI v Second XI fixture (a new feature that I really like!) and then a further five matches against all domestic opposition of varying levels.

Stragely, our most successful games came against the two Serie A teams that we played (Benevento and Parma) while the Serie B and Serie C/Lega Pro teams proved a bit more of a challenge – although still victories that were comfortable.

100% winning record in pre-season is nice but it was good to see goals from all over the park, I’m now fairly comfortable with the tactic I will be using the start the season: a 3-4-1-2 with wingbacks. It’s too early at this stage to look in depth at it, we’ll see how it fares in competitive motions.

I’m also fairly sure of my strongest team in most areas except the back three. Having tried various combinations, I’ve been impressed by them all so I just can’t yet decide who my strongest back three are yet! It’s one of those selection headaches that are a welcome problem.

SERIE A RETURNS…

I’ve always liked to plan ahead in blocks of five matches. We kick off the season with Inter Milan (home) before taking on Torino (away) to close out September’s fixtures.

October gives us newly promoted Spezia (home), also newly promoted Crotone (away) and Cagliari (home) – although I believe our first European game will come sandwiched between the Crotone and Cagliari games.

Inter will provide stern opposition, having pipped Atalanta to second last season and strengthened an already impressive squad in the summer period. However facing two newly promoted sides and two who finished in the bottom half of the table last season, we should be reasonably confident of getting our season off to a great start!

There’s not much more to be said from here, so it’s time to get started!

Atalanta: La Festa della Dea

June 4, 2021

La Festa della Dea – or “Festival of the Goddess” – is an annual celebration of Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio led by The Curva Nord 1970, the Serie A club’s Ultra group which occupies the North stand of the Stadia Atleti Azzuri d’Italia. Much googling leads me to believe the Curva Nord take great pride in their motto of “We Hate Everybody”, it is a sentiment that I can very much get behind.

I have to admit to a limited knowledge of modern day Italian football but I had set my sights on Atalanta as my FM21 club very early on this year. Upon noticing them battling it out for the Serie A title, it felt that they fitted my intended challenge for this upcoming edition of the game. I often tend to take on the so called fallen giants, middling clubs or second tier sides but I’ve decided this year that I want the added challenge of playing with a club with much higher immediate expectations.

Another thing that attracted me was the club’s reference to Greek mythology – taking their name from the goddess Atalanta. The legend goes that Atalanta was not interested in being tied by marriage, despite the wishes of her father, and so agreed only to marry if the suitor could outrun her in a footrace. Many tried and failed, unable to match the heroine’s athleticism, until Hippomenes sought the help of Aphrodite the goddess of love. Aphrodite gifted Hippomenes three golden apples which were so irresistible that they distracted Atalanta during her race, allowing Hippomenes to win the prize of her hand in wedlock. Other accounts claim Atalanta had an interest in Hippomenes, the grandson of Poseiden, and so wanted him to win the race. Alas, I digress.

THE PILLARS OF THE PARTHENON

There are several reasons that came into my thinking when finally deciding upon this club. The mythology may play some part in several forms as my save progresses.

The three apples were challenges that Atalanta was unable to overcome. Domestically, I expect Juventus and Inter Milan to be two of the apples that will challenge me on my quest for victory. You could pick any one of AC Milan, Napoli, Lazio or Roma to be third apple.

Atalanta was famed for her athleticism, hence the challenge of a footrace to avoid having to marry. I want to build a squad that is famed for the same. The style of play I want to implement will require high levels of fitness and determination: a team with the ability to press relentlessly like Klopp’s Liverpool and counter attack at speed like an iconic Real Madrid at their best.

Aside from the challenge of wanting to take a team in the higher reaches of the table, I also wanted to play with a three-at-the-back formation and Gian Piero Gasperini has made that a staple of his time at Atalanta. Having a stable trio at the back should give a solid base for me to set about the playing style I’m craving.

KEY PLAYERS FOR 2020/21

Atalanta have built themselves a fairly well rounded squad, despite the loss of Timothy Castange in a summer move to Leicester. With that in mind, I don’t see any reason why I would need to make any changes in the initial transfer window.

A lot of people, through both real world football and FM, talk about the importance of having a solid spine to the team. Thinking from that perspective, the following four players are those I see as key to my beginnings with La Dea:

Marco Sportiello: At 28 years old, he’ll just be coming into his prime as a goalkeeper. He is a product of the highly acclaimed Atalanta youth system who returned to the club in 2013 after spells in Lega Pro on co-ownership and loan deals. Sportiello departed Bergamo again in 2017 for an 18-month loan deal with Fiorentina and spent a further season on loan with Frosinone before returning to Atalanta once again in 2019 as second choice between the sticks. He has made himself the number one choice for 2020-21 and will begin as such for me.

José Luis Palomino: The Argentine centre-back spent the first five seasons of his career in the Argentine Primera Division with San Lorenzo and Argentinos Juniors before making his way to Europe with Metz of France. After a season with Ludogorets in Bulgaria, Palomino made the switch to Atalanta in 2017 and has become a mainstay of the team for much of his time there. At 30 years old, he has the experience to lead the backline and will be a leader in all but the official capacity.

Alejandro “Papu” Gómez: Another experienced Argentine, Gomez also began his career in the Primera Division. Having played for Arsenal de Sarandí and San Lorenzo (spending a season in the same side as Palomino), Gómez made the move to Catania in 2010 spending three seasons with the Sicilian side before an ill-fated season in Ukraine with Metalist Kharkiv. A swift return to Italy was manufactured in 2014 and Papu has become an icon at the club. The club captain has described himself as a “false second striker” and will be key in the attacking play, capable of scoring and providing goals.

Duván Zapata: The 29-year-old Colombian striker made his breakthrough at the famous América de Cali before three seasons at Estudiantes – two iconic clubs of FM blogging. A 2013 move to Napoli saw Zapata make a name for himself in Serie A with loan spells at Udinese and Sampdoria, joining the latter after an obligation to buy clause was followed. In the summer of 2018 Zapata made his loan move to Atalanta with the Bergamo club enacting their option to purchase 18 months into his initial 24 month loan. Zapata is a pacy striker with an impressive physique which will lend itself well to my intended style of play.

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AIMS, OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTATIONS

It always feels like a good idea to think about what you want to achieve with a save before starting. The beauty of playing FM is how unique it is in the journey of a save – the yardstick for success is entirely subjective. For some, a good save is taking a small club and becoming a dominant force in world football. For others, taking moderate acclaim with a big club would suffice.

I never expected to be weighed down with trophies in FM – I’m really not that good at the game. I’ll be happy to stabilise Atalanta as a regular Champions League competitor, make an odd claim for the cup competitions and become competitive in title races… even if not actually being successful in them.

There is always the chance that it all goes wrong and I get sacked early on. After all, the average Serie A manager only lasts around 16 months, or at least that forms part of my carefully crafted statement anyway…