Surprise surprise! That was a complete flop with a brutally loud megaphone announcement! What Atalanta was thinking when they took this attitude is still a mystery to me to this day. (Although the results were still correct at the beginning.) Palladino would be an exciting successor.
The matter can only be about corruption, every hobby football fan knew that he was no good as a coach, the sports director probably has some connections to his advisor
Where does corruption supposedly have taken place?
Atalanta is a team that, as a whole, gives more than its parts and Juric was Gasperini’s assistant.
It’s not far-fetched that a coach who knows the methods and habits of Gasperini and the team is best able to hold this construct together and manage it.
By the way, Juric was quite successful at Hellas and Torino.
Without the stable smell in the sense of “He was Gasps’ assistant” he would definitely not have become Atalanta’s coach. After two completely disastrous stints in a very short period of time, he must have had very loud advocates among the senior heads of the Atalanta board in order to justify this commitment.
The stop at Toro was only “successful” in terms of results, because in the end the results on the agenda were 0-0, 1-0, 1-1, 1-2, 2-1, 0-1, which even the hardened Catenaccio disciples among the fans wanted to cover their eyes for 90 minutes. Yes, under Juric the Toro came 10th again instead of just escaping relegation, but at the end of the day that was in keeping with the squad value, the quality of the individual players and the budget and unfortunately nothing special. Even Ventura and Mazzarri had better points totals.
At Hellas he was ok, but not the Messiah either. However, at the time he also had a squad at his disposal that was considerably better than the Football Manager fever dream of the present. Among others, he was able to rely on Rhamani, Dimarco, Barak, Zaccagni, Kumbulla, Amrabat, Pessina and the prime versions of Faraoni, Lazovic and Silvestri, which really represented an ideal starting point for his Calcio Cinicissimo.
Overall, it can be said that the man may be a great fit for a team that is hopelessly inferior in terms of football compared to the rest and consists of 11-20 rugby players. Meanwhile, it’s largely useless for a team with a high level of playfulness. Let him play at Cagliari next season and he’ll finish 12th with them, but at Atalanta he just didn’t fit into the overall structure with his anti-football and with a statement.
Accordingly, it can at least be described as nepotism to present the student of the club legend Gasp as his successor, even though he and his concept of football fit neither with the squad nor with La Dea’s offensive self-image.
Free the Attack!
Of course you are right in many respects and I don’t think Juric is a particularly good coach, but the decision to install Juric didn’t come out of nowhere.
Basically, Gasperini’s legacy is probably one of the most ungrateful ones you can take on, the squad was geared towards him for years, he has a very special style and wasn’t the most approachable coach in terms of character, which always caused unrest within the dressing room.
Which trainer has the standing, courage and skills to take on this task?
Because as good as Atalanta was under Gasperini, they are still not a top 5 club in Italy financially and in terms of standing.
And then you just have to play a very good season yourself and hope that one of Milan, Napoli, Inter, Juve and possibly Rome doesn’t have a good season.
Either way, I think signing Palladino is absolutely the right move and I think he can get a lot more out of this squad.
If the timing had been better, I’m even sure that he would have been preferred over Juric in the summer.