In this save, we’re embarking on a nostalgic adventure with the brand new 1994/95 database from The Mad Scientist, which is currently available in Early Access mode.
Atalanta secured an immediate return to the best league in the world by blowing away Serie B with over 100 goals and points. But they faced a big step up in quality if they were to meet the board’s objective of surviving in Serie A – which wasn’t helped by a poor financial situation.
They came into the summer break with the bank balance £6m in the red, largely due to £1.5m tax payments contributing to them losing around £2m per month. That forced manager Roberto Lombardi to sell wantaway centre back Paolo Montero and striker Maurizio Ganz to Arsenal and Leeds for £10.5m apiece, which probably wasn’t ideal.
Ganz was ably replaced as Christian Vieri arrived on a free transfer from Vicenza and 18-year-old Andriy Shevchenko signed for up to £6.5m from Dynamo Kyiv. They also brought in 18-year-old midfielder Mark van Bommel for £2m from Fortuna Sittard, attacker Arturo Di Napoli on a free from Gualdo and loaned midfielder Vikash Dhorasoo from Havre.
With that transfer work done, Lombardi stuck with his 3-5-2 approach and put plenty of faith in his army of young talent. He was also considering retraining Sheva as an attacking midfielder to shoehorn his big three attackers into the side. However, he was a little concerned by the defence, given his three starting centre backs were teenagers!
Quick Transfer Window Round-Up
One of my biggest fascinations with these databases is seeing where players end up in this alternate reality. And some of the transfers in this save have been pretty bonkers, so it’s worth taking a look at some of the done deals over the first year. Djalminha to Blackburn is a fascinating move, Man United have been buying everyone they can, Shearer going to Juve is scary, Liverpool signing George Weah and Roberto Carlos amused me, as did Man U flogging Gary Neville to Arsenal, who also signed Henry from Monaco directly. While Spurs signing Makélélé and Nedved is just silly and Romário going to PSG on a free transfer is disgraceful. And in managerial news, Arséne Wenger left Monaco to join Inter.
- Mauricio Pellegrino: Vélez to Liverpool, £26m
- Ryan Giggs: Man United to Juventus, £23.5m
- Marcelo Salas: Univ de Chile to Inter, £17m
- Luis Enrique: Real Madrid to Milan, £14m
- Zinedine Zidane: Bordeaux to Leeds, £13.5m
- Rivaldo: Palmeiras to Milan, £12m
- Thierry Henry: Monaco to Arsenal, £11.5m
- Fernando Hierro: Real Madrid to Man United, £10.75m
- Gabriel Batistuta: Fiorentina to Bayern, £10.25m
- Lilian Thuram: Monaco to Man United, £10.25m
- Alan Shearer: Blackburn to Juventus, £9.75m
- Marc Overmars: Ajax to Man United: £9.75m
- Patrick Kluivert: Ajax to Milan, £9.5m
- Darren Anderton: Tottenham to Man United, £9.5m
- Davor Suker: Sevilla to Lazio, £8.5m
- Dennis Bergkamp: Inter to Real Madrid, £7.75m
- Andrey Kanchelskis: Man United to AC Milan, £7.75m
- Claude Makélélé: Nantes to Tottenham, £7.5m
- Albert Ferrer: Barcelona to Juventus, £7.5m
- George Weah: PSG to Liverpool, £7.25m
- Roberto Carlos: Palmeiras to Liverpool, £7m
- Figo: Sporting to Real Madrid, £7m
- Pavel Nedved: Sparta to Tottenham, £7m
- Fernando Morientes: Albacete to Barcelona, £7m
- Cafú: Sao Paulo to Lazio, £6.5m
- Patrick Vieira: Cannes to Aston Villa, £6.5m
- Robert Pirés: Metz to Lazio, £5.75m
- José Luis Chilavert: Vélez to Man United, £5.5m
- Michael Ballack (regen): Kaiserslautern to Man United, £4.6m
- Javier Zanetti: Banfield to Newcastle, £3.7m
- Djalminha: Guarani to Blackburn, £3.6m
- Gary Neville: Man United to Arsenal, £3.5m
- Les Ferdinand: QPR to Arsenal, £3.3m
- Romário: Barcelona to PSG, free
- Jurgen Klinsmann: Tottenham to Roma, free
- Claudio Caniggia: Benfica to Juventus, free
Facing The World’s Best
The bookies fancied Atalanta’s chances, predicting a 12th-place finish with title odds of 350/1. Holders Juventus are 13/8 favourites followed by Milan (7/4), Lazio and Sampdoria (14/1) and Inter and Roma (16/1).
They began life in Serie A where they left off in Serie B, laying siege on the Reggiana goal as prolific midfielder Leo Rodriguez scored twice in 39 minutes before attacking midfielder Domenico Morfeo curled in a magnificent free kick and Vincenzo Montella rifled in a 4th in injury time. They allowed the visitors to score their first 2 shots on target, but Rodriguez completed his hat trick from the penalty spot to restore the dominant nature of the scoreline.
The only negative in that opener was Sheva having a poor debut. But he put that right immediately with a first half brace at Piacenza before another Rodriguez penalty secured a 3-1 win. Their first big test was at home to Parma and that man Rodriguez was at it again, tucking away a penalty before his late winner nicked a 3-2. Vieri picked up a knock in pre-season but scored on his debut as Rodriguez scored 2 more in a wild 3-3 at Brescia, on the same day early pacesetters Roma won 6-1 at Inter.
A first defeat followed as Rodriguez and Vieri scored in a 3-2 loss at home to Sampdoria before getting thumped 6-2 at Fiorentina. That latter result was indicative of some of the ridiculous scorelines in Serie A, including Milan winning 8-0 at Foggia and 7-4 at Reggiana, Lazio winning 8-1 at Cesena and Lazio beating Brescia 7-0 and Bari 6-2 away.
Rodriguez continued his flying start by scoring the winner in a tight 2-1 at home to Foggia, 2 more in a 4-1 win at Cesena and another as they thrashed Torino 4-0. That took him to 14 in 9 games to top the league’s goalscoring chart. But things got tricky moving into November as Atalanta took on all the Italian big boys. They lost 2-0 at leaders Lazio before a ridiculous 3-3 at home to a stupidly good AC Milan, in which Montella came off the bench to equalise twice in the last minute, before a wonderful 4-1 win at Napoli led by Montella’s first half brace. But they lost 5-1 at a strong Juventus, whose scorers included Giggs, Vialli and Del Piero, put up a great fight in a 4-3 defeat at home to Roma and lost 2-0 at Inter.
But halfway through the season, Atalanta were more than holding their own. While they struggled against the big boys, they were comfortably better than most of the strugglers, which saw them sitting 8th heading into the new year. Some of the numbers teams were racking up were outrageous, led by Juve scoring 73 in 19 (3.8 per game)!
Mid-Table Consolidation
Atalanta began the new year with a 1-0 loss at Parma before the increasingly impressive Vieri bagged a hat trick in a clinical 4-0 win over Brescia. The goals continued to flow in both directions as they lost 3-2 at Sampdoria then Rodriguez’s brace earned a 3-2 victory at home to Fiorentina. But their season stalled as Rodriguez got injured in a defeat at Foggia in February, which ushered in a run of defeats before improving to pull off a surprise 1-0 win at home to 2nd-place Lazio.
The second half of the season continued to be a struggle. But Morfeo and Vieri earned a 2-0 win at relegated Cremonese in late April, which consolidated their position in 10th place. Their improving defence earned a 0-0 at home to Juventus and Morfeo’s hat trick inspired a 3-0 win at Roma, before a brilliant 4-2 win at home to Inter on the final day.
Those big wins saw Atalanta close in on the trio of Roma, Inter and Napoli as they finished 10th with 54 points. They won 16, drew 6 and lost 12, scoring 72 and conceding 58. A ridiculous Juve side defended their title, scoring a remarkable 131 goals – that’s 3.85 goals per game! Rodriguez finished as the 6th top scorer in Serie A with 22 in 28, 5 behind Klinsmann (27 in 27), and Vieri was 15th with 15 in 31. While Ferron kept the joint-4th most clean sheets with just 8 in 34, which was only 4 behind Peruzzi’s 12.
An Impressive Start to Life In Serie A
A young Atalanta side was very much mixing it with the big boys, exceeding expectations in their first season in Serie A with an average squad age of just 21. And Lombardi’s performance led the Atalanta board to hand him a new 4-year contract on £18,500 per week. The incredible Rodriguez led the way with 26 goals and 8 assists in 29 games from central midfield. Vieri scored 15 in 32, Morfeo got 15 goals and 9 assists in 32 and Montella got 12 in 31 but Sheva struggled a little with just 5 goals in 24.
The second youth intake was led by 5-star potential centre back Cesare Natali, who’s gone straight into the first team and played 330 league games for the likes of Udinese, Torino, Fiorentina and Bologna in real life. It also featured real-life midfielder Corrado Colombo, alongside exciting newgens midfielder Tommaso Iovinella and Giorgio Nicolosi.
Atalanta’s players were attracting loads of interest with very low price tags, which could prove a major challenge in the summer. However, they were the only club in Serie A to record a transfer profit and there was plenty of potential to come.
Could Atalanta challenge the top half of Serie A in their 2nd season? Join us next Saturday to find out!
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