Alphabet Challenge | Part 16, Club 6 | Putting Faith In Italian Youth

Unexpected success in Germany saw Trebor Mahtal lead Eintracht Frankfurt to the club’s second Bundesliga title in 2037. A stellar season saw Frankfurt edge out Bayern and Leipzig, which led to Mahtal resigning from his fifth club.

Mahtal’s latest success boosted him to a 4-star reputation, and he now has a perfect 20 for level of discipline, people management and motivating. Indeed, his name was linked with a high-profile move to Liverpool after they sacked Xabi Alonso.

However, unbeknownst to the media, Liverpool was not an option for Mahtal, who’d already ticked L off his Alphabet Challenge, along with E, P, S and U. A few intriguing opportunities popped up over the next few days and Mahtal put his name in the hat for several vacancies. He swiftly attended interviews with an Italian team that had fallen on hard times and a fallen giant in Belarus, who both offered him the opportunity to fill their vacancies. Mahtal delayed to weigh up his options and potentially more offers, which never materialised. But he fancied a really big challenge and that took him to Italy.

Who Are Atalanta BC?

Atalanta holds the dubious honour of playing the most seasons in Italy’s Serie A without winning a league title. The club’s only major honours are a Coppa Italia in 1963 and the Europa League in 2024, but it holds the record for most promotions to Serie A. And those credentials will be critical for Mahtal’s next challenge as Atalanta just suffered a shock relegation, finishing bottom of Serie A with 28 points. This came out of nowhere, considering the club had previously finished 7th, 5th and 8th and has some great players, who will likely not be here next season.

Atalanta play at the 24,950-capacity Gewiss Stadium and has strong infrastructure of 19 youth recruitment, 18 youth facilities and junior coaching and 16 training facilities. However, the club has £69m of debt and, despite having £17m in the bank, the board had slashed the wage spend of £1m per week to a new budget of £67k per week. That’s obviously unfeasible, so Mahtal was immediately concerned he’d made a big mistake.

Mahtal Oversees An Atalanta Clearout

The financial mess at Atalanta forced Mahtal into a huge rebuild. They had several players on ludicrous wages, including three players aged 32+ on over £72k a week, and some prized assets that wanted out following relegation. Top earner Antonio Nusa (now 32, on £100k per week) moved to tycoon-backed Cherno More for £4.4m and their other two highest earners Orkan Kukcu retired and Ibrahim Sulemana was one of 15 players released. Mahtal moved on 13 more players for a profit of £23m, slashing a huge £700k off the wage bill.

There was plenty of news off the pitch, including fanciful rumours of a tycoon takeover. That came to a head in early August as the Atalanta board enforced a transfer embargo with various consortiums rumoured to be circling the club. But, unsurprisingly, the takeover collapsed despite the club’s owner actively looking to leave. The situation was eventually resolved in December and, again unsurprisingly, a new chairman came in and didn’t provide any further investment – which was a total waste of time.

The better news was that Atalanta’s prodigious youth development was in full flow, with 25 players having at least 4.5-star potential, so Mahtal put his full faith in youth. They just about held onto star player Ihor Petrov, whose £52m move to Bayern collapsed on deadline day, and midfielder Matteo Romano, who’s retraining as a centre back. Other key players will be midfielder Luca Mauri and centre back Camille Lavigne, then the homegrown crop led by wingers Dario Renna and Alberto Mondino, midfielders Francesco Rossi and Emanuele Conti and striker Marco De Nicola. But the most exciting talents may be 6ft 6in 15-year-old center back Daniele Colapietro, 17-year-old right back Lorenzo Perinelli and 18-year-old striker Federico Carpineta.

Having assessed the players available, Mahtal opted for a 4-2-4 approach built around their exciting attacking options.

Getting Started In Italy

The bookies have Atalanta as second favourites for Serie B with title odds of 2/1. Fellow relegated sides Empoli and Monza are also favourites at 1/91 and 13/5, along with Salernitana (6/1) and Frosinone (9/1). Atalanta apparently had the league’s best three young players in Carpineta, Rossi and midfielder Marco Maiella, and the board were expecting automatic promotion – which means a top-two finish.

It only took Atalanta 100 seconds to score the first goal of the Mahtal reign as Mauri put Carpineta in for his first senior goal at home to Cesena. They came under pretty heavy pressure before Carpineta headed in Mondino’s corner to kill the game off. That was backed up by thrashing rivals Brescia 5-1 with Perinelli and Mondino scoring their first senior goals and Petrov bagging a hat trick as they dominated Perugia. But a tired team eventually lost 1-0 at Frosinone and lost to them again 3-1 at home in late October.

Petrov began to take the league by storm, including a goal and an assist in a 5-1 win at home to Como and two late goals to seal a 3-0 at Cittadella. Atalanta suffered a little wobble through November and a 0-0 at 3rd-place Empoli left them 2 points behind leaders Monza going into the winter break.

Form Capitulates Ahead Of Promotion Race

The biggest positive of January was that no more key players left, which continued to leave the club spending £300k more than the ludicrous weekly wage budget of £134k. 2038 began with a dismal 2-1 defeat at Catania and another 0-0 with Empoli, which allowed Monza to move 6 points clear. Carpineta returned from a few injury issues to bag a hat trick in a 3-1 win at home to Brescia before a 2-1 loss at Cesena and a fortuitous 0-0 at home to Salernitana, in which Massimo Todaro made 10 saves.

Mahtal switched up the tactics, dropping the out-of-sorts Petrov into a shadow striker role then to a 4-3-3. That saw some improvement as the Ukrainian snapped his seven-game goalless streak with the only goal at bottom-side Lecco. A huge game followed at home to fellow promotion chasers Bari, who scored their first shot on target before Renna missed a penalty. They levelled with a brilliant Mondino finish, but looked to have lost it as Bari scored in the 92nd minute. However, the team finally showed a bit of backbone to equalise straight from kickoff. A draw didn’t help either team but did keep Atalanta in 3rd. An even bigger game was up next as they travelled to 2nd-place Monza, and a tepid 1-0 defeat dropped them to 5th. However, the top six were separated by 8 points with eight games remaining.

An easier run of games followed, and Carpineta got Atalanta back on track with the only goal at Cremonese and the second in a dominant 2-0 win at home to Crotone, before a 0-0 bore draw at 14th-place Como and Petrov and Mondino earned a comfortable 2-0 win at home to Cittadella. That teed up an exciting promotion battle that saw 3rd to 7th separated by six points with five games remaining, with Monza and Empoli probably out of reach at the top. Atalanta trailed Cesena by 3 points in the race for automatic promotion, but they were guaranteed a playoff place in the top eight.

Game 1: Perugia (18th, away): The run-in began with a trip to relegation-threatened Perugia and Carpineta’s close-range finish nicked all three points. The rest of the top six also won.

Game 2 – Virtus Entella (20th, home): Mahtal celebrated 500 games in management with an easy 2-0 win over relegated Entella with a Maiella penalty and a late Renna strike. Empoli won 6-0 to guarantee a top-three finish and Cesena beat Crotone 1-0, but Monza lost to remain 6 points clear of Atalanta.

Game 3 – Venezia (8th, away): Atalanta’s trickiest remaining game was another tight clash decided by the improving Maiella’s low 20-yard drive after an hour. Empoli won again to wrap up the title, Cesena won 3-0 at Entella and Monza lost 2-1 at home to Cosenza – leaving them level on points with Cesena and 3 points clear of Atalanta with a worse goal difference going into the final day.

That meant Atalanta could finish 2nd on the final day, but they’d locked down at least 4th. However, according to the board and supporters, Mahtal failed to achieve automatic promotion after the Venezia game, which was a little worrying.

Game 4 – Benevento (17th, home): Atalanta hosted Benevento, who’d just avoided relegation, Monza went to 6th-place Bari and Cesena hosted 13th-place Brescia going into the final day showdown. Monza scored after 8 minutes, while Carpineta was somehow missing an open goal from six yards out. But they took the lead with a wonderful Petrov strike and somehow only won 1-0. Monza conceded just before half time and drew 1-1, while Cesena let in an 82nd-minute winner to lose 1-0 to Atalanta’s rivals Brescia. That saw Atalanta leapfrog Cesena on the final day to finish 3rd, with Monza promoted by 1 point. Atalanta finished 3rd with 77 points after 23 wins, 8 draws and 7 defeats, scoring 70 and conceding a joint-low of 27. But they had to drop into the playoffs.

Serie B Playoffs

Atalanta qualified for the two-legged playoff semis, where they took on Pisa, who beat Bari courtesy of being the higher seed after a 2-2 in the preliminary round. Atalanta bossed the away leg and, after obviously conceding Pisa’s first shot, eased to a 2-1 win through second-half Renna and Carpineta goals. And they eased into the final as quickfire Maiella, Mondino and Petrov goals earned a 3-1 victory. Cesena and Frosinone each won their away games 1-0, which saw Cesena progress as the higher seed.

That teed up a two-legged Final to decide promotion, with the away leg three days after the semi so Mahtal had to rotate tired players. A cagey affair followed and Atalanta lost Maiella and Mondino to injury, gifted Cesena the opener on 71 minutes and had Carpineta’s late equaliser disallowed. Maiella was ruled out of the second leg and Mondino wasn’t fit, so Renna came in on the left. Atalanta started brightly as two superb moves saw Carpineta crash a shot against the keeper then send a close-range header wide. But they drew level in style as Petrov smashed a 30-yard freekick into the top corner just before halftime. They continued to dominate the game with Carpineta missing chances then, when he did hit the target after 81 minutes, saw another effort ruled offside. However, the striker eventually turned creator as his far post corner was headed in by Lavigne. Cesena offered nothing and Atalanta eased to a 2-0 win.

Atalanta won the Serie B Playoff and were promoted to Serie A!

A Challenging But Enjoyable Campaign

Mahtal had been concerned he was edging close to the sack after failing to gain automatic promotion. But the fickle board and supporters forgot all about that upon winning the playoffs. He’d been more worried by the club’s finances, but those also rectified upon achieving promotion, with the wage budget immediately jumping to £672k per week.

Carpineta led the way with 21 goals in 41 games, which saw him win the Serie B top goalscorer award, but he’s a pretty streaky and struggled at the end of the season. Petrov impressed with 16 goals and 6 assists and also went through lengthy spells of poor form. Arguably their best player was Mondino, who got a new Serie B record 17 assists with 10 goals and won the league’s player of the season award. Mauri also impressed with 14 assists from midfield and Todaro only conceded 28 in 40 and won the league’s goalkeeper of the season.

Mahtal was excited about the massive potential of some of his young Atalanta stars. It’s worth remembering they got promoted with a squad whose average age is just 20 and the only players aged over 21 are goalkeeper Todaro and the centre back pairing of Romano (29) and Lavigne (30).

Could Mahtal strengthen his young Atalanta side for survival back in Serie A? Join us on Monday to find out!