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.
Big Sam Allardyce enjoyed a much stronger Season 2 of his Bottom At Christmas challenge, leading Cádiz CF safely away from the LaLiga dropzone. But he swiftly stood down and holidayed ahead ready for a new challenge in Season 3. Looking back at his former clubs, Nottingham Forest gained promotion at the first tome of... Continue Reading →
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.
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).
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.
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.
There had been a seismic shift in the fortunes of FC Pompei in the five years that previously unknown Roberto de Vesuvius Sulpicius had been in charge. And the minnows defied all the odds to remain in Italy's Serie C/C for a second season.
Manager Robí Sulpicius faced the significant challenge of his entire first-team squad being out of contract and a worrying financial situation overshadowing his need to rebuild for Serie D.
