Atalanta BC shocked Italy as their superstar attack of Ronaldo, Raúl, Álvaro Recoba, Vincenzo Montella, Domenico Morfeo and Juan Román Riquelme blitzed them to a maiden Serie A title with 128 league goals in 1999 (2028). And those exploits saw Montella and Recoba installed as Atalanta legends.
Italian football saw seismic change as a young Atalanta side established itself as the 2nd best in Serie A in 1998 (2027). Their massive overperformance saw the vultures yet again circling their best players, clearly cognizant of the club's dreadful finances, but things were about to get very exciting in Bergamo.
Atalanta surprised everyone, including their manager, as a sublime end-of-season surge saw them climb into the European places and finish 3rd in Serie A in 1997 (2026). The challenge now was for Roberto Lombardi to strengthen his squad and hold onto his exciting youngsters.
Heading back 30 years in time, Atalanta have just been relegated from the greatest league in the world, Italy's Serie A, and are red-hot favourites to be promoted at the first time of asking. To achieve that aim, the club took a massive gamble by turning to a rookie local football lover to deliver a change in fortunes - Bergamo-born coach Roberto Lombardi.
Growing up in the early 1990s, some of my earliest memories of "getting into" football news and watching football were formed by Channel 4's Football Italia. We'll celebrate that with new series in the 1994/95 database for FM24.
Football Manager Addict 