In this save, we’re embarking on a nostalgic adventure with the brand new 1994/95 database from The Mad Scientist, which is now fully available here.
Atalanta BC mixed it with the big boys of Serie A and finished just outside the top half in their first season in the top flight. And the club’s board backed manager Roberto Lombardi by agreeing to his requests for improved training and youth facilities, youth recruitment and junior coaching over the summer of 1996 (2025).
Lombardi’s fears of big teams coming in for his best players didn’t take long to materialise. The biggest annoyance was Man United, who repeatedly make pathetic bids of around £2m for players obviously worth at least five-times that value. They eventually lost Vieri to Spurs for £12m, sold on last summer’s failed signings Luis Cembranos to Espanyol for £3.2m and Arturo Di Napoli to Coventry for £600k, and sold backup striker Tomas Locatelli to Cagliari for £2.3m.
Vieri was replaced by an even more legendary figure as Raúl arrived on loan from Real Madrid, with a target of 30 league goals and an optional fee of £5.5m. Lombardi bolstered his creative options with two Argentinians, Marcelo Gallardo and Juan Román Riquelme for £4m each from River and Argentinos Jrs. He also brought in midfielder Massimo Ambrosini for £4.7m from Cesena, Hasan Salihamidzic as a backup wing back for up to £4.3m from HSV and backup striker Svetoslav Todorov for free from Litex.
Lombardi stuck with his 3-5-2 approach with Ambrosini coming into the midfield and Raúl partnering Andriy Shevchenko up top with support from Vincenzo Montella.
There have been plenty more intriguing transfers around the world. The most fascinating has to be Stan Collymore moving to Barcelona, Man United seem to be trying to buy everyone, including Henry from Arsenal, and Liverpool now have the glorious full-back pairing of Cafú and Roberto Carlos. Major transfers in 2025 include:
- Christian Nerlinger: Bayern to Barcelona, £36m
- Cafú: Real Madrid to Liverpool £15.75m
- Thierry Henry: Arsenal to Man United, £14m
- Adrian Ilie: Steaua Buchuresti to Inter, £14m
- Serhiy Rebrov: Dynamo Kyiv to Nantes, £13.25m
- Paolo Maldini: Milan to Man United, £12.5m
- Andrey Kanchelskis: Milan to Juventus: £12.25m
- Dan Petrescu: Man United to Inter, £11.5m
- Davor Suker: Lazio to Man United, £10m
- Claude Makélélé: Tottenham to Ajax, £9.75m
- Edgar Davids: Ajax to Liverpool, £8.25m
- David Ginola: PSG to Arsenal, £8m
- Gio van Bronckhorst: Feyenood to Newcastle, £7.75m
- Fabio Cannavaro: Lazio to Man United, £7.5m
- Javier Zanetti: Newcastle to Juventus, £7m
- Matthias Sammer: Dortmund to Arsenal, £7m
- Lars Ricken: Dortmund to Roma, £7m
- Alen Boksic: Bayern to Dortmund, £6.75m
- Dida: Cruzeiro to Tottenham, £6,75m
- Matt Le Tissier: Southampton to Blackburn, £6m
- Stan Collymore: Forest to Barcelona, £5.75m
- Pippo Inzaghi: Napoli to Lazio, £5.75m
- Giované Elber: Stuttgart to Fiorentina, £5.5m
- Emile Heskey: Leicester to Blackburn, £4.8m
- Roy Makaay: Vitesse to Forest, £4m
- Ibrahima Bakayoko: Montpellier to Leverkusen, £3.8m
- Paolo Di Canio: Milan to Inter, £3.3m
- Denis Irwin: Man United to Juventus, £3.2m
- Paul Scholes: Man United to Milan, £2.8m
Tricky Start to Season 2 in Serie A
The bookies backed Atalanta to finish in mid-table again, predicting an 11th-place finish with title odds of 200/1. Juve remain 6/5 favourites followed by Milan (5/1), Lazio (17/2), Roma (9/1) and Inter (10/1).
Atalanta had a really tricky start to the season, losing 2-0 at home to Lazio and 4-1 at Inter. They got up and running as Raúl got off the mark and last season’s star man Leo Rodriguez scored twice in a 4-1 at home to Foggia. But they got hammered 6-3 at Fiorentina and lost 3-2 at home to Napoli before Montella’s brace earned a much-needed 2-1 win at home to Milan. Lombardi changed things up to a narrow 4-4-2, which didn’t work as they got battered by Parma and Juventus, which left Atalanta in 10th after 13 games but only 5 points above the relegation zone.
Shevchenko had continued to underperform but ended a 13-game goalless streak at Bari before Gallardo’s 1st for the club earned their first away victory at the 7th attempt. But their home form remained strong, including Montella’s brace earning a 3-1 win over Inter in the first game of the new year. Raúl had missed 6 weeks with a knee ligament injury but returned with 2 goals to inspire a superb 4-2 win at Fiorentina.
Star Players Rally After Chairman Sells Sheva
Lombardi’s mission took a major setback as the Atalanta board sold Shevchenko from under him. He’d previously protested a £12m offer, only for the chairman to accept an offer of up to £24m, which in fairness is the biggest deal worldwide in this save so far, a week later. He considered resigning in protest, which seemed a little extreme considering Sheva only scored 8 in 35 for the club. But it certainly raised questions about the manager’s long-term future, especially given Atalanta’s dodgy finances.
In his absence, their star players stepped up. Morfeo scored one and created 2 for Montella in a 3-2 win at Napoli and Raúl bagged consecutive braces in a 3-0 win at home to Cesena and, most impressively, a 3-2 win at 2nd-place Milan. The improving Riquelme got in on the party with a hat trick in a crushing 5-1 win at home to Cagliari, which lifted Atalanta into the top 6 for the first time, before Montella, Raúl and Morfeo saw off bottom side Salernitana and Montella’s brace sealed a vital 2-0 win at home to Parma.
The end-of-season surge continued as Montella scored 2 more in a 4-0 thumping of struggling Genoa. And Montella and Morfeo earned a deserved 2-1 win over 7th-place Roma, which moved Atalanta 4 points clear of them with 5 games remaining. More interestingly, they were suddenly only 2 points behind Lazio in 3rd! And that meant Atalanta had European qualification in their hands.
The run-in began with the toughest possible test at a ludicrously good Juventus, who’d won every home game this season. Alan Shearer scored twice for the hosts but Raúl got a goal back just before half time and Montella’s late double earned a brilliant 3-3. Montella and Raúl both scored again as they eased past Bari 3-0 before Montella and Morfeo bagged braces in a 5-0 hammering of Brescia.
That teed up an exciting battle for the last few European places with Atalanta, Milan, Roma and Inter all fighting for 5th and 6th.
Atalanta secured their place in Europe as Montella’s delicious chipped finish was the only goal at Torino. They wrapped up the season with Montella scoring 2 more in a 3-0 win over Sampdoria, which saw them jump all the way up to 3rd on the final day!
That saw Atalanta record the best finish in club history, surpassing the 5th place secured way back in 1948. That was thanks to a brilliant 17-game unbeaten spell since the end of December, in which Montella scored 18. They finished 3rd, level on 69 points with Fiorentina and only 2 points ahead of Milan in 6th, after 21 wins, 6 draws and 7 defeats, scoring 79 and conceding 44. But for context, that points tally would only have secured 6th place last season as the bigger sides dropped off significantly. Juve ran away with the league, finishing 20 points clear and scoring a ridiculous 129.
Montella won the Capocannoniere award as Serie A top scorer with 27, 1 more than Kluivert and 3 more than Vialli, and got the most MOTM awards (9). Fabrizio Ferron again got the 2nd-most clean sheets (12), only behind Peruzzi (13), and won the F.Pulici award for the best goalkeeper, and was joined in Top 11 dell’anno della Serie A by Mark van Bommel and Montella. And Lombardi was named Most Valuable Coach and Panchina d’Oro for the best manager.
Massively Overperforming Expectations
A wonderful second half of the season saw Atalanta shake up Italy’s big boys and book their place in the UEFA Cup. Montella led the way with 28 goals in 34 games, taking him to 70 in 99 in 3 seasons. Raúl also impressed with 16 in 30, Rodriguez scored 11 but tailed off after an injury, Morfeo scored 8 with 12 assists and wing back Damiano Zenoni got 10 assists.
Raúl came 2nd to Henry in NxGn 1997 (2026) with van Biommel 3rd, academy product Pierre Giorgio Regonesi 16th and Riqeulme 36th. The list also included legendary regens like Andy van der Meyde, Harry Kewell, Diego Milito, Diego Forlán, Michael Bridges, Jamie Carragher, Geremi, Delron Buckley and Andriy Voronin.
The third youth intake delivered two great talents in defender Gianpaolo Bellini, who was a bit of a Champ Man legend and made 396 league appearances for Atalanta, and Alex Pinardi.
How would Atalanta fare in Europe? And could they continue to challenge the big teams in Serie A? Or would Lombardi’s overachievement attract attention from elsewhere? Join us next Saturday to find out!
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