That Maurizio Sarri wanted a change of air was hardly a secret.
“I haven’t felt listened to this year,” the now former Lazio manager said again after the final league match against Pisa. He spoke of a “devastating season, the most difficult of my time in Serie A”, of a group “extraordinary from a moral point of view”. Looking at the squad, a ninth-place finish and a Coppa Italia final was hardly insignificant.
The message landed. A call for a football project in the fullest sense.
Atalanta answered within days.
They too had spent months in drift. Their Champions League campaign said enough: Borussia Dortmund one week, ten goals conceded against Bayern the next. Then the changes on the bench — Juric first, Palladino after him — neither enough to restore a recognisable identity after Gasperini’s departure.
The first season after him was always likely to be difficult. Perhaps not devastating in Sarri’s sense. Not enough, either, to stay on the same track.
For a reset of this scale, few coaches bring more personality than the former Napoli and Chelsea manager.
Can this Atalanta reinvent itself with him?
The answer is on the pitch. From here, though, it looks a risk worth taking for both sides.
The first shift is tactical.
Sarri’s football has always been built on a back four. Atalanta have played with three central defenders for ten straight seasons. The Gasperini model became reference and habit. His successors, careful not to stray too far from it, never really altered the structure.
With Sarri at Zingonia, things change regardless.
The wing-backs who defined the last decade become full-backs. De Roon has to live inside a midfield of two players able to mix quality and work. At the moment, those profiles are not obvious in the squad.
Éderson looks bound for Manchester United. Samardzic is interesting, though a little light, a little uneven, perhaps too elegant for the demands of that role.
No clear Allan-Jorginho pairing, no Sergej-Luis Alberto axis waiting to be built.
The market may have to carry part of it.
If Sarri is ready to take on Atalanta, he will have asked for guarantees on recruitment. The same kind he felt were missing in his second spell at Lazio.
Cristiano Giuntoli’s arrival in Bergamo points in that direction. The two know each other from Naples. Together they shaped a Napoli side that became instantly recognisable, and travelled well beyond Italy.
For it to work again, Sarri and Giuntoli will have to feel ownership of the project.
There is something in this squad already. A front three freed from certain duties could look different: Scamacca, De Ketelaere, Raspadori.
But adjustment runs both ways.
Many of Sarri’s players have grown in a football built on intensity and running. Not his natural terrain. That is part of the risk.
Still, the sense is that the meeting point exists. Small adjustments, on both sides, and something coherent can emerge. A strong team. A recognisable one.
Not necessarily immediate. But present.
Capable again of sitting just outside the centre of power in Serie A.
One last detail.
Sarri and Atalanta already have a Europa League in the cabinet. A Conference League would not be out of reach.
Among other ambitions.