Football Season Guide

Atalanta will remember the past season for a long time as they only fell from the second rung of the Serie A ladder, losing the very last game against Inter, and failing to achieve the Champions League semifinals, running out of steam in injury time against Paris Saint Germain. Moreover, in the domestic league they managed to score an incredible 98 goals, thus holding by far the best attack of the competition. Ambitious Atalanta management tried to learn from what went wrong in the past campaign in order to further improve their performances in the new season and become a candidate for the title. The matches against Inter and Paris Saint Germain taught them that they need more depth in the squad, and so they tried to strengthen themselves over the summer, while trying to keep all their stars. And, in the case of supporters’ idol Papu Gomez, it was the player himself who refused massive amounts of Arabian money to continue with the Goddess. Thus far, coach Gasperini has lost only Castagne, a full-back who provided back-up to regulars Hateboer and Gosens. The pair were said to be leaving but they are still at the club with newly-arrived Piccini and Reca ready to step in. Moreover, central midfielder Tameze also returned to his parent club after never really earning himself Gasperini’s trust. Centre-back Romero arrived on loan from Juventus and is expected to increase the options at the back while attacking midfielder Miranchuk, from Lokomotiv Moscow, will give the coach one more arrow for the attack. While waiting for Ilicic to overcome the bout of depression that kept him out for a big chunk of the past campaign. With Gollini out injured for some time, Atalanta are on the hunt for a valid goalkeeper while at least one more forward and full-back are set to arrive before the end of the transfer campaign.