Football Season Guide

After reaching a promotion to the Serie A and 3 quiet safeties in a row with Colantuono at the helm, Atalanta painfully had to part ways from their coach midway through the past campaign as they had fallen too dangerously close to the bottom of the league. In fact, far too often they had proved incapable of winning games, they eventually summed up 16 draws at the end of the season, and scoring, only Chievo Verona and the relegated Cesena and Parma had a worst record up-front. For such reason, at some stage Reja was charged with the task of leading the ship to a safe harbour, which he did wisely, thus obtaining a confirmation also for the new season. So far, the Goddess’s summer transfer campaign saw three illustrious departures: the promising Baselli and Zappacosta left for Torino while Benalouane signed for Leicester. More players, who had failed to earn themselves relevant playing time, such as Bianchi, Biava, Scaloni and Emanuelson, were all let go. At the same time, several loanees made the way back to Bergamo but, among them, Suagher at right-back seems to be the only one with serious hopes of making the starting eleven. Besides him, Kurtic, who spent the last season with Fiorentina, is also a candidate to the midfield in a 4-3-3 formation, alongside the confirmed architect of the middle of the park Cigarini and Carmona. The Dutch De Roon could represent a valid alternative to them. The attack, whose main flaw in the past campaigns was represented by an excessive dependence on Denis, should see Pinilla taking over with the Argentinean still a possible departure. The hope is also that the wingers Estigarribia and Gomez will be able to express all their qualities, something they could not fully do in the past campaign. The feeling is that Atalanta are still a work-in-progress with Reja still looking for new signings in all departments.