FM10: Official Atalanta B.C Thread - Regina delle provinciali

History:

The club was founded in 1907. A football club had existed in Bergamo since 1904. Founded by Swiss wealthy immigrants, it was known as FC Bergamo. The rival Atalanta club grew out of a division between different sporting societies in the town. The name is taken from the female athlete of Greek mythology. The FIGC was unimpressed with the new club and did not officially recognize them until 1914. The current club is the result of a merger between Atalanta and a third team called Bergamasca. The first, black and white coloured and the second wearing a blue and white shirt, merged in 1924 as Atalanta Bergamasca di Ginnastica e Scherma 1907. The team moved to the site of the current ground, on the Viale Giulio Cesare, in 1928.

Atalanta joined the Italian league in 1929. The club first reached Serie A in 1937, but was relegated immediately. The club returned in 1940 and remained in A until 1959; after a single season in Serie B the club was promoted and lasted a further decade in A, before relegation in 1973 led to an uncertain period of promotion and relegation between the two levels.

The club achieved its highest position in 1948, finishing in 5th place. In 1981 the club fell into Serie C1, a blow which revitalised the club. The team returned to B the next season and made it back to A in 1984. The club's form in Serie A remains uncertain, as it was relegated in 1987, 1994, 1998, 2003 and 2005.

In terms of titles the club has won little, their sole silverware is the 1963 Coppa Italia. The club has had very few good runs in Europe, the best spell ending in a Cup Winners' Cup semi-final in 1988; in 1991 Atalanta reached UEFA Cup quarter-finals.

The club's youth system has produced many successful players, such as Roberto Donadoni (Italy national team coach from July 2006), Alessio Tacchinardi, Domenico Morfeo, Giampaolo Pazzini, Riccardo Montolivo, Ivan Pelizzoli, and Samuele Dalla Bona who have quickly been grabbed by the bigger clubs. Other players who have graced the Atleti Azzurri d'Italia include Claudio Caniggia, Glenn Strömberg, Alemao, Paolo Montero, Christian Vieri, Filippo Inzaghi, Gianluigi Lentini, Cristiano Lucarelli, Cristiano Doni.

Fottball Manager Info:

Nation: - Italy

Year founded - 1907

Status - Professional

Reputation - National

Chairman Status - Loves the club

Legends - Christiano Doni

Icons - Fabrizio Ferron, Riccardo Zampagna, Nicola Ventola, Emiliano Mondonico, Gianpaolo Bellini, Claudio Caniggia, Giovanni Vavassori, Massimo Carrera, Massimo Taibi, Mauro Velentini, Paolo Montero, Domenico Morfeo

Favoured Personnel - None

Fierce Rivals - Napoli, Brescia, Inter, Roma, Verona, Torino, A.C Milan

Other Rival - Perugia, Fiorentina, Juventus

Finances - Secure

Avarage ticket price - £30.40

Avarage season ticket price - £243

Season ticket holders - 7800

Estimated Value - £34.5M (Loan Debt: £30.5M)

Continental competition - None

Media Perdiction - 13th

Squad Personality - Very determined

Stadium - Stadio Atleti Azzurri d'Italia (Bergamo, 26642 (10000 seated))

Training facilities - Top training facilities

Youth facilities - Excellent youth facilities + Youth academy

Expections - Mid-table, Top half, Continental qualification, Title Challenge or Winner

Transfer budget - £2.3M for Mid-table, £2.9M for Top half, £3.1M for Continental qualification, £3.3M for Title challenge and £3.6M for Winner

Wage budget - £300k (Mid-table), £325k (Top half), £350k (Continental qualification, Title challenge and Winner), The club is currently spending £204,240.

Squad

Bold = First choice/s

Italic = Not the players natural position

* = Important players

Goalkeppers

Andrea Consigli

Fernando Coppola

Right Backs

György Garics

Gianpaolo Bellini

Simone Padoin

Left Backs

Gianpaolo Bellini

Thomas Manfredini

Federico Peluso

Miguel Layún

Centre Backs

Leonardo Talmonti

Thomas Manfredini

Paolo Bianco

Maximiliano Pellegrino

Federico Peluso

Right Midfielders

Ferreira Pinto

Nicola Madonna

Fabio Ceravolo

Fabio Caserta

Left Midfielders

Simone Padoin

Jaime Valdés

Fabio Caserta

Christiano Doni

Centre Midfielders

Christiano Doni*

Edgar Barreto*

Tiberio Guarente*

Ivan Radovanovic

Jaime Valdés

Fabio Caserta

Strikers

Robert Aquafresca*

Simone Tiribocchi

Cristian Tiboni

Squad Analysis

Star Player

Robert Aquafresca

This man will bang in goals for you, he is young and still a great finisher and a good aerial player, plus he is reasonably fast.

Alongside Aquafresca, imo Tiberio Guarente and Christiano Doni (even though he's old) are two very important players of this team.

The team itself is in dire need of improvement if you want to get a good league position.

Goalkeeper

Andrea Consigli:

This is a good young goalkeeper, he isnt great but will do his job well. The biggest problem here is that there is NO cover. Fernando Coppola just isn't good enough for Serie A. It is imperative that this position is improved

Left Back

Gianpaolo Bellini:

Mr Atalanta himself is a solid player and he is pretty well covered by Thomas Manfredini (who i play as a CB). Some might argue that Manfredini is a better first choice, but this is how i play it.

Right Back

György Garics:

A good full back and wont need replacing right away, there are other positions where the need for replacement is alot bigger. The problem is that there is no cover for this position, so wouldnt hurt to look into some sort of cheap cover.

Centre Back

Thomas Manfredini and Leonardo Talmonti:

This is a weak part of your team and definatly needs reinforcing, the main guys here are just slightly better then the cover, wich isn't very good at all. I'd suggest getting a good centre back in asap.

Wingers

Ferreira Pinto and Simone Padoin:

These two players are good enough for a mid table Serie A team, Valdés and espcially Madonna provide good enough cover. Caserta can also jump in on either side.

Defensive/Central midfielders

Tiberio Guarente and Edgar Barreto:

Very solid players, both are good enough for a top half team, Ivan Radovanovic is young but is still good enough and will provide decent cover.

Attacking midfielders

Chistiano Doni:

Doni, even though he isn't getting any younger he is very good player. He will set up and score goals for you for atleast another season. Valdes and Caserta provide good enough cover here.

Strikers

Robert Aquafresca:

As iv'e stated previously, this guy is great, definatly try to keep him when the loan comes to an end. Tiribocchi provides good enough cover here

As for improving the squad, you definatly need to get a new goalkeeper, either cover for Consgli or a new first choice keeper with Consigli as cover.

The defence is weak in general, but the weakest link imo is the central defence, and you will need to invest in a new defender. Also a cover for garics wouldnt hurt.

As for the rest of the team it could use some improvement here and there, and some better cover, but considering your small budget you wont have many options so try to focus on the keeper and the defence.

Recommended Signings

I will take the Continental qualification alternative since the £200k extra for Title challenge isnt worth it imo, and you get max Wage budget.

Vincent Enyeama - GK

Nicolas Otamendi - CB

Further id recommend signing a right back for coverage, personally havnt found anyone yet. Ill post my pre-season transfers soon.

Recommended transfers out

Federico Peluso

Jaime Valdés

Cristian Tiboni

Tactic

Id go for either a 4-2-3-1

---------ST--------

AML----AMC----AMR

--------------------

-----DM----DM-----

DL----CB---CB----DR

---------GK---------

You could also move the DMs up to CMs

Or 4-1-2-2-1

---------ST-------

AML-----------AMR

-----MC----MC----

--------DM--------

DL---CB---CB---DR

--------GK---------

Conclusion

This is a challenge, might not be as big of a challenge as a lower league team, but with a limited budget, debt. a small non expandable Stadium and a being settled in a small city your in for a treat. I've been playing Atalanta since i started supporting them back in 97 and ive always had a blast. I hope you will enjoy playing Atalanta as much as i do.

I just started a game with them and i will post updates on how im doing as it comes along.

looks exciting!

going to play after i get home from work at midnight tonight, looking forward to some ass kicking

well, ive gotten started now and i must say im looking forward to the season. for my signings i failed to sight otamendi, he went to spartak moscow. However i did sign Vincent Enyeama for £210k. And im also thrilled to have signed Angel Di Maria for £2.7M.

Pre season games are looking good and next im up to play arsenal, looking forward to that challenge but now im off to bed.

Had to restart my game due to some lousy playing . now ive got a new save running and corrected some mistakes i made first time around. here are some screenshots.

really happy with my result vs roma, using an attacking 4-4-2 tactic with a defensive touch to it. smolarek and aquafresca are doing great. i alternate it with a 4-2-3-1 tactic.

Nice OP.

moving on im doing fine, winning inter 1-0 at home, and ac milan 5-4 away. Still having some defensive problems and lost 7-1 away against fiorentina. Anyhow, after 16 games im 5th in the league and i think i will have no problem finishing top 8.

Hey luffis...I was wondering how your save is progressing?

About to start my third season with Atalanta after finishing an uninspring 10th and 11th in the first 2 seasons. (Am able to beat the top teams, its just that i have no cover in defense for injured/tired players)

My defensive line and goalkeeper are by far the weakest links....havent managed to attract any players since i took over.

However, my attacking lineup is good (and has depth) - Doni, Rakitic, Lazzari, Badelj, Caserta, Lolo, Kranjcar, Kramaric.

What decent defenders were you able to attract?

well ive been very busy with work and uni lately and my free days have been passing by drinking some as of late . just finished my first season and i was 11th in the end due to a very bad ending of the season (alot of injuries including 1 1/2 months on Di Maria and 1 month on Doni). I am currently in my second summer transfer window and i have just signed Luisao for £7,000,000. going to try and sign some decent full backs now and a def midfielder regen from brazil i just found, amazing stats for a 16 year old, ill post a screenshot soon .

Allright, update ob my game, im 19 league games into the 2nd season and now i will update with transfers and how im doing.

Summer transfers 2nd season:

IN:

Artem Milevskyi £8.75M Dinamo Kiev

Luisão £7M Benfica

Milos Krasic £9.5M CSKA Moscow

Hernán Bernardello £7M Almería

Total: £32.5M

Out:

Nicolas Otamendi £8.75M

Leonardo Talmonti £4.8M

And various other to co ownage etc wich i cba mentioning

Total: £19.25M

Conclusion on transfers: I dont personally didnt like that i had to sell Otamendi, but i reckon i couldnt have held on to him anyway so i thought id make a profit atleast.

I was very excited about Milevskyi and he hasnt let me down.

So far the season has been better than the first, im in the first round of the italian cup vs Inter.

As for the league im 6th so far after 19 games with 33 pts and a +14 goal difference. Im still a bit shaky in defence but its definatly getting better, Luisão is organizing the defence well and im not conceding as much, i am though scoring alot more . Milevskyi is first in the top goalscorer run with 23 goals in 19 games.

Ill bring more updates later on .

you seem to be in a similar position to me when i was in my second season. However, just after 18 games, my form dropped and I was only getting about 4 points out of every 3 or 4 games.

One thing i did notice is you had HEAPS more money to spend compared to me in the second season. Can i ask what you set the season goal to (winners/continental qual/top half)

I recall i set mine to the lowest, wich was a safe top half finish (which i didnt quite achieve, just scraping into 11th position by 1 point over 12th and 13th....)

i set mine to continental qualification, used all my money though :o. As for performance im doing good, im 4th atm after 30 games played.

I've played 2 seasons of my Atlanta save, and thougt I should give a little update.

First season I brought in Di Maria (£4.8 milllion), Enyeamma (675k) and Raul (£5 million), plus I got rid of most of the deadwood. I played a 4-1-2-2-1, the season started really well, but Acquafresca picked up a bad injury and I finished 8th which wasnt too bad. Di Maria was my star play and won fans player of the year.

Second season I had a bit of a clean out, this was helped when Real Madrid took Consigli off my hands for £10 million.

Transfers in:

Defour - £12 million

Park Ji Sung - £4 million

Micheal Owen - £1 million

Marek Suchy - £2 million

Iker Muniain - £3 million

Outs

Consigli - £10 million

Plus deadwood.

I had a steady start to the season, then the January transfer window opened, Man United enquired about Di Maria so I said £30 million, they came back with the lot up front and the board accepted, I probably would have anyway. Then I sold Raul for £10 million and Baretto for £12 million giving me a nice pot of cash to splash. So I signed:

Fazio £17 million

Ben Arfa £15 million

Moussa Sissoko £11 million

And the board kept a nice big chunk to keep the finances looking good.

I manged to finish the second season in 5th, I was miles behind 4th, but happy anyway. Although looking back I was lacking upfront. Park was the player of the season by far, and top goal scorer too.

The board gave me a £30 million budget for the summer. I brought in Gerson who looks like a great prospect for £1.3 million. But I still needed I striker, my main target was Paloschi but Parma had only just brought the other half of AC Milan so he wouldnt move. As the end of the window approched I was getting desperate, I just couldnt find the right players. So I went back for Paloschi got my bid accepted but he said he didnt want to come, but I offered him a mega contact and to my suprise he signed.

I'm pretty pleased with my side, except for right back, but I just couldnt find anyone good enough who didnt cost £20 million plus.

He is my current side

GK: Enyeama

DR: Capelli

DC: Fazio

DC: Suchy

DR: Bellini

DM: Guarente

MC: Defour

AM: Ben Arfa

AMR: Park Ji Sung

AML: Padoin

FC: Paloschi

I occasionally play Sissoko at DM, Guarente MC, Defour AM and Ben Arfa AML.

Looking to challenge for the top 4 this season, but 5th wouldnt be too bad, and hopefully a decent go in the Europa cup.

Playing as Atalanta now...will post updates if anyone is interested. Has been a tough season so far!

can anyone tell me wherw is Robert Aquafresca,i cant find him on 10.3 datebase.

thanks

He is at Genoa.

Ive started a game with Atalanta, and having mixed results, we can beat teams like Fiorentina and AC Milan (3-1 and we were down to 10 men for the last 20 mins)

Brought Dentinho still trying to get the best out of him on the left wing as an inside forward, but need to sign a proven goalscorer, i spent the bulk getting Dentinho and atm got £0 to play with, but selling my right back has he is always being booked and sent off and maybe offloading some higher earners i dont need, any suggestions on strikers to sign, say max of £5m

Alright boys started one with Atalanta one of my 3 saved games, looking forward to it