Yeah Atalanta a few years ago had Andrea Conti, Cristante, Zappacosta, Caldara, Petagna all logging minutes on the way up to major transfers. Problem is that while come of those guys developed, they never replaced the next wave with homegrown Italians instead preferring to buy foreigners. Look the model obviously works for them but you cannot tell me that only Pessina can break into their lineup (Gollini is on the way out) Their youth academy is filled with tons of rated players some of which are on loan at B and C teams. Crazy that none of them can get a chance on the first team. Its not crazy to think that guys like Davide Betella Alessandro Cortinovis and Roberto Piccoli can't be squad players for a provincial side, albeit one with Champions League hopes.
I'm not sure if I'd still call Atalanta a provincial side. They are now one of the best Italian teams, and they can be listed as being located grossly in the Milano larger metropolitan area, which is different from truly provincial locations. Atalanta has everything to become (well, that's kind of done already, so I probably should say, to remain) one of the 3 great teams of the largest Italian metropolitan area. Bergamo is only 45 kilometers northeast of Milano and a short train ride from it with multiple trains throughout the day (every 20 minutes). Bergamo also has its own international airport, BGY, appropriately officially called Milan-Bergamo Airport (a.k.a. Il Caravaggio Orio al Serio Airport) with major flights to many Italian and European cities (major Ryanair hub - you can direct-fly from Bergamo to pretty much everywhere in Western and Eastern Europe) which is handy for CL matches. BGY is now Italy's 3rd largest airport with up to 20 million passengers per year. You won't find too many provincial towns with this kind of asset. Actually I just checked, Bergamo *is* officially part of the Milano metropolitan area. And if you just consider the population of the Province of Bergamo itself, it's 1,114,365 inhabitants; that's a major agglomeration in itself (to draw fans from for matches, and to sell merchandise to), and a member of a metropolitan area that boasts 8,220,170 inhabitants (that's the fourth largest metropolitan area in Europe). I think Atalanta has arrived for good and can no longer be called a provincial side. Not that I have any inclination to support them (I'm a rossonero for life) but I welcome more Italian sides that are competitive domestically and continentally. It's good for Serie A.
Which is why I said "to remain" - so they need to keep proving it. But in my opinion, they have arrived for good. We'll see. Like I said, Atalanta are not just any provincial side; they are members of a major populational center which enhances their long-term viability. Also the owner, Antonio Percassi, is quite wealthy (qualifies as a billionaire) and the fact that he is a former footballer in addition to being a successful businessman, enhances his focus on the club among his business conglomerate. They are also renovating and expanding Gewiss Stadium and have already been granted by UEFA the green light to host Champions League matches there.
Locatelli, sure; regrettable. But Donnarumma, it wasn't too early. He stayed with the club for 5 years as a senior team professional. HIs contract expired, and his manager asked for unreasonable fees + salary, and Donnarumma left. It's not exactly's Milan's fault.
While Napoli failed to do it... couldn't beat lowly Hellas Verona in their final game. I wish they did, because it would have dislodged Juve, and I'm very much interested in keep breaking Juve's Serie A stronghold so I didn't want them to benefit from another Champions League season, money-wise.
Hellas Verona F.C. actually had a decent first part of the season last year. They beat Roma, Lazio , Atalanta , and Napoili. Then tied Juve , Milan and Napoli. For some reason they went downhill in March but still managed a 10 place spot. That is good for them though...
Atalanta does an incredible job with their scouting and development, but that can only go so far. If they start offering their stars contract extensions with big boy money then I’d say something has changed with the club. If they keep selling their stars sooner or later they’ll miss a few times on player selection and become a mid table/yoyo club again. *it’s hard to claim elite Serie A club status when your model is built around selling your best players…
IMO their success is tied to Gasperini and their scouting department. If Gasperini ever takes a major job again they will fade away back to mid table. Even if Gasperini stays i will be incredibly difficult to stay in the top 4 unless they change their philosophy, although they did purchase Musso from Udinese for 20 million. Champions league money will be good for them.
Small correction: they draw with Roma, but were awarded a 3-0 win because we made a clerical error with the squad list. On Atalanta, yes they are here to stay as a European place contender - their management and new stadium will see to that - but I doubt they will take the step to become genuine scudetto contenders.
Correct. They gave them a win. Stll a draw against Roma was good. As for Atalanta,. they were Runners-up in the Coppa Italia in 2018–19 and 2020–21 and that is good for them. They still have not won anything yet and I doubt they will ever achieve much unless their owner comes up with another Calisto Tanzi Parmalat-Parma fraud….
Well, they were genuine Scudetto contenders this past season. Up to losing in the very last round to Milan they were second-place. Since when aren't the runners-up a title contender? They were very prolific in offense, scoring 4 or 5 goals in many games. Sure, Inter ended up pulling ahead of everybody towards the end of the season but Atalanta were in the mix for a long time, which is exactly what being a contender is. Even thought they ended up losing to us (thankfully) in the 38th round so that we became the 2nd placed team, they ended up 3rd in Serie A (tied in points with the 2nd) and 2nd in Coppa Italia (losing the final game by the smallest goal difference, 1-2). If that doesn't qualify as being a contender I don't know what else does. You don't need to be the title *winner* to qualify as a title *contender.* Let's compare them to the other contenders. In the two Serie A matches this past season between Atalanta and the eventual champs Inter, one was a draw 1-1, and the other one Atalanta lost 0-1. That's pretty close. Their aggregate against Milan this past Serie A season favors them 3-2 (one 3-0 victory, one 0-2 defeat). Against Juve, their aggregate favors them 2-1 (one 1-0 victory, and a 1-1 draw). So, compare their head-to-heads with the other 3 of the top 4 Serie A teams this past season: they won 2, lost 2, and drew 2, and were ahead in aggregate score against 2 of the 3 teams. So, they were pretty level with the big boys. If you include the other 3 that qualified for European competition, Napoli, Lazio, and Rome, you have one victory a piece against Napoli, one a piece against Lazio, and a victory against Roma plus a draw. So, Atalanta against the 6 other top 7 teams: Won 5 games, lost 4, drew 3. Of the top 7, the only team with a positive record (although pretty minimally) against Atalanta were the eventual champs Inter, thanks to their 1-0 victory after a 1-1 draw. Atalanta prevailed against 2 of the six, and got even with 3 of them. Yep, bona fide title contenders. I don't exactly know why I'm defending Atalanta, LOL. I guess, just because like I said, I welcome the idea of another good team in the Milano metropolitan area and in Serie A, to make it more competitive. Otherwise, I'm not especially sympathetic to Atalanta; much the opposite, I see them as rivals. I don't plan to root secondarily for them just because of their vicinity with Milan. But I do recognize their quality and their potential to remain consistently among the top 7. I do have this coming season a team I'll be secondarily rooting for: Venezia. That's because I come from the Venezia area. Milan is my club, period, so I'll still root for Milan when they play against Venezia. I will just be sympathetic to Venezia and hope that they will manage to be among the top 17 so that they don't get relegated to Serie B immediately after they climbed to Serie A.
I said, lose or give up too early. They have lost Donnarumma for the reasons you stated. I mention both because they were both youth team products. Milan makes good ones from time to time. It would be nice for them to keep them from time to time too and build up with good purchases and good youth academy. Serie A needs a resurgence. Maybe Mourinho can help bring Roma some competitiveness in the next two seasons. Juve looks like they're going to bolster and be a contender again. Inter should still be able to give a push. Having four teams + Atlanta, Napoli and Lazio be strong is what the league needs right now.
Now that it's over and the boys won i'm glad that they went through the tougher side of the bracket. If we were on the other side we would never hear the end of it "they didn't play anyonem they got the easy side of the bracket blah blah"
Exactly. That's what my son kept saying, when I lamented our side of the bracket at the end of the group stage: "If we can't beat Belgium, or France (at the time they were still in), etc., then we can't be champs. It doesn't matter what side of the bracket we belong to. We just have to win the next 4 games regardless of the opponents, and I think we will." Yes, we did, and nobody can say that we had it easy.
Words of wisdom And we did, at least three times Considering that Switzerland eliminated France and took Spain to pk's we have that too.
Reason why I want to see a team like Udinese ******** off to the lower leagues forever, they contribute nothing to the national team, its almost as if they do in spite of Italian Football. Italy will have to rely on 6-7 key players over the next 10 years(Bastoni,Chiesa,Locatelli,Barella,Pellegrini,Donnarumma,Kean) and build a team around these players with lesser talents and hope there are some more and better push for youth development.
Yeah the last few years I've been following them hoping the same. They are without a doubt the worst offender. I've only been following Serie A for about 7 years...were they always this way?
i can't think of a ton off the top of my head that they have produced for the Italian NT. Simone Pepe, Toto Di Natale, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Quagliarella are the recent ish ones that come to mind. I guess Lasagna and Okaka but not as impactful. back in the day... i think my fellow Calabrese Stefano Fiore first broke into the NT while he was at Udinese.
There's lots of talent at the under levels imo but it will have to be harnessed at smaller clubs. It's clear the top Italian teams will play 3 maybe 4 Italian players. But Manicini has proven he can build a winner and his system is being deployed at all levels of the National Team so the next batch will be well versed in what he wants. He's also good through the next World Cup cycle. The next 5 years or so could be a very nice run