Build From the Top
It’s a funny old game, Football. Football Manager is an even funnier one, though. At the start of the season, if you’d asked what I thought would happen when I combined my Gasperini Tactical Recreation with a squad who had an average age of just under 25, I’d have told you we’d be scrapping for mid-table while they got used to the shape, formation and playing style.
If you add to the mix having to replace my leading goalscorer in January, then the season becomes even more of a rough ride to glory. But like I say, Football Manager is a funny old game.
That’s right, there’s some new Kings of Calcio in Bergamo! In the most intense final-day experience I've ever had on Football Manager, we pipped AC Milan to the title by a single point, making our early-season 1–0 win over them look even more important than it did at the time. I could talk for hours about each result in the season, but that’s not specifically what this post is about.
I always feel that after a trophy win, the temptation is to go out and splurge the money on world-class stars, new faces and make the most of the buzz around your squad. Inevitably, you end up shifting a couple of stars, replacing them with wonderkids, overloading your youth teams, and breaking your wage structure. Sometimes, it works, sometimes, it really doesn’t — the wonderkid list lets you down, players flop, and you end up missing that 32-year old defensive midfielder more than you ever thought possible.
Looking at our season summary, it’s clear that overall, the title was a solid team effort; that’s not my worry. My worry is that we’ve already had to replace Duvan Zapata, and there are teams sniffing around my entire midfield 3. While usually that wouldn’t be a problem (and indeed, i’d happily move on 32-year old Maarten de Roon), we don’t have a substantial transfer budget to get out ahead of any outgoings. With £15m in the budget, we’re going to have to be smart in the market to get maximum value.
What I'm talking about here is what I call ‘building from the top’ — it’s not particularly ground-breaking (as much as the Liverpool board seem to struggle with it in real life), but its the idea of constantly seeking out the ‘next man up’ and keeping a shortlist of targets which can step into the roles of departing players. By planning ahead and finding that value in the market, you stop yourself being priced out of moves because you’re panicking, or being forced to replace players at the last minute.
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Two areas where I've got out ahead of potential transfer interest are center-back, and central midfield. In the first instance, we’ve brought in Jakub Kiwior from Spezia for £5.75m (£2.5m up front). As in the previous transfer post, this was a data-driven signing; Kiwior wins 80% of his duels, played almost every game for Spezia and consistently appeared high in the statistical metrics. A deal as cheap as this one was is essentially a no-brainer, and we’ve managed to bring in a young, consistent defender for a relatively cheap price:
Our second pre-agreed summer signing was (and I'm shocked we’ve pulled it off) Andreas Schjelderup, who’s leaving Nordsjaelland for £8m all-in. I’ve got a couple of potential uses for Andreas within the setup; firstly he could be moulded into a good second striker, however there is also potential to use him in the advanced playmaker role in the center of our midfield 3. I’ll have to spend some time deciding which way round him and Ademola Lookman will play and develop, as they have quite similar profiles:
I also wanted to give some consideration to refreshing our midfield in the next couple of seasons; 32-year old Maarten De Roon was in the last season of his contract, and headed off to Villareal for £18m. I’ve stretched that money a bit (with help from installments), to replace him with 2 players, alongside using the recently-returned-from-loan Matteo Pessina. We swing Bilbao £11m for Oihan Sancet, who’s a more attacking option, but gives us some flexibility in how we set up or midfield, allowing us to shift Koopmeiners to Carrilero if we need to:
And in a more defensive-minded move, we’ve structured a deal worth up to £24.5m with Leipzig to bring in 20-year old Lucas Gourna-Douath. the youngster played 15 games for the Austrian side last season, averaging a 7.06 match rating, almost 4 ball recoveries per match, and had a pass completion rate of 90%. He’s still a bit raw, so has been sent back out on loan to Salzburg this season to continue to develop with first-team minutes.
One of the things I've made a conscious effort to do this summer is to drastically reduce the size of the squad at Atalanta. As seems to be tradition in Italy, they have masses and masses of U20/U18 players who get farmed out on loan, and we’re making moves on shifting a lot of these to free up wages and generate some cash.
The idea of ‘Building from the Top’ also extends to making sure our youth system is working efficiently to produce talents. One of the hallmarks of Atalanta’s growth in the last few years has been their willingness to give chances to young talents, and develop players through the youth system, and that’s something I'm keen to emulate. Of course, having almost 80 players out on loan from the youth system might, on the face of it, look like the academy is producing talent, but honestly? Most of those players were nowhere near the level required. I’d rather run smaller youth teams and focus more on each individual player and maximising their playing time.
Enjoyed this post? You Might also enjoy:
Zingonia: A New Football Factory (Part 1 Of This Atalanta Story)
Gasperini and Me: The Emperor’s New Groove
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