Out Scamacca, inside Retegui. Very little time has passed between the confirmation of the very long injury that will keep Gianluca Scamacca away from the pitch next season and the arrival of his colleague Mateo Retegui in the national team for medical visits. A few days to provide Gian Piero Gasperini with a solution ready for his debut in Serie A, with chances to join the team for the European Super Cup Final against Real Madrid scheduled for August 14 in Warsaw.
A striker for a striker, with very different characteristics and a price (22 million plus 3 in bonuses) not exaggerated by the conditions in which Atalanta was forced to operate. A lightning deal which tells a lot about the economic health of the Goddess, but which also raises questions about the incoming transfer market of the current summer session.
Obviously, no one can be blamed for the Scamacca incident. These are events that often happen in professional football and bad luck has decided to fall on the striker of the Goddess and the Italian national team. But let’s go back a few months ago.
L’Atalanta vince l’Europa League after an extraordinary journey and the fans suggest, between enthusiasm and awareness of being able to count on a strong squad, to aim for the Scudetto. A forbidden dream that however the continuous step made by the Bergamo club allow us to imagine without receiving the astonished look of the interlocutors in return. Atalanta is in fifth place among the Serie A squads, currently behind Napoli, but with 5 players less and still considering the presence of Victor Osimhen (who represents a fifth of the total value transfer market of the European rose).
It is there, among the best in Italy as a team that is the reigning Europa League champion, with expectations that have grown thanks to this victory and made so by having players at its disposal that are desired by several Top Club of the old continent. To these events he adds an enviable situation regarding economic health, which foresaw moves capable of raising the level also through the market.
With almost 2/3 of the summer session in the archive we can however affirm that the Goddess has chosen a mode of operation different than previous seasons. No player sold for unmarketable figuresbut a series of farewells that brought more than 50 million euros into the Bergamo coffers (Zapata, Cambiaghi, Hateboer, Okoli, Miranchuk, Zortea). Transfers of members considered surplus, who would not have found space in Gasperini’s chessboard. Instead, at his court there arrived, for about 70 million total (also considering the redemption of Of Potatoes) Nicolò Zaniolo, Benjamin Godfrey, Ibrahim Sulemana and now Mateo Retegui.
The approach was probably to keep the block from last season together and shore it up with players ready to challenge its ownership. An approach that was successful only until the aforementioned injury and the caso Koopmeiners which, 20 days before the transfer market closes, risks complicating Atalanta’s operations considerably. These are the words of Gian Piero Gasperini on the topic in an interview withEcho of Bergamo.
“The situation was going very well until last week, then Koopmeiners decided to go to Juventus, not to play or train with us anymore. He already has an agreement with Juve, he feels stressed. With this attitude he can’t be useful to the team, nor to his teammates.”
– Gasperini on Koopmeiners
And again regarding the global situation of the Atalanta market.
“Atalanta were unlucky to lose three such important players. We are at rock bottom, the club will take care of it, but at this moment the team is much less competitive than at the end of last season. There are still three situations that the club is working on.”
– Gasperini on the market
And we agree with the Goddess coach, at least on these points. In the back line perhaps a new interpreter could have been useful and on the lanes, the right one in particular, other solutions to work on from the beginning of the retreat. That of Koopmeinerwith Juventus seemingly sparing no expense and Percassi firm in his desire not to give up the left-footed player, is destined to become a case which, still in its early stages, could have either a positive resolution (reinstatement as a starter) or a negative one (forced transfer to a rival).
