At the beginning of the season a report was published in Gazzetto regarding Serie A wages. An astounding 1.36 Billion Euros is expected to be spent on wages this year, with half of that being spent by ONLY 5 clubs. Remarkably you won’t find Atalanta on the list until you get firmly into the mid-table tied for 12th with Sampdoria. With a wage bill of only 36M Euros, the sale of Dejan Kulusevski, nearly covers the club’s wages for the entire year!
With the success that Atalanta has experienced the last couple of seasons, it is inevitable that the Laws of Soccer Economics will begin to take hold, and one of two things will happen. First, Atalanta will hold to the “Atalanta Way” and sell of players making a handsome profit, and bring a fresh crop of strategic economical replacements. Or oppositely, La Dea can choose to pay up and fend off offers from “bigger clubs,” and keep its current squad.
There are merits to both plans. As a regional team, Atalanta must always consider the future and don’t have the coffers to spend excessively on players that can lead to an unsustainable wage bill. However, on the other hand, it is quite possible that Atalanta has reached a point of success in which funds from consistent European football are sufficient to support a higher wage bill. The second plan is a risk. While Atalanta will always rely on their youth system and youth recruiting to profit, any slip up in missing European football and the missed funds associated with it could mean selling assets earlier than planned in order to stay afloat for the upcoming season.
So what does it mean for Atalanta going forward? With no guarantee for Champion’s League, but at the same time the desire to reach the Top-4 and additional cash, it’s a predicament in which there is no easy answer. As we speak; Freuler, Gollini, Hateboer, Gosens, and Djimsiti all earn 0.5M Euros or less annually, enormous value for players who are staples of the club. Every single player will eventually demand wage increases in some way, shape, or form, especially if success continues to find the club.
Atalanta’s January signings may have some insight into their plans. They brought in 5 players in key positions of need, who could all prove essential in providing the depth the squad needs to fight on multiple fronts. Even providing raises to the players that will demand (and deserve) them, it wouldn’t put too much of a damper on the club’s wages. If the wages of the 5 players previously mentioned quadruples annually, it would only be a 6.7M wage increase (basically the salary of Lukaku), hardly breaking the bank for the club, and still allowing it to maintain it’s depth. Even if the salary of Zapata and Muriel doubled (which it probably will not due to their relatively older ages as strikers), it would only be a 3.6M euro hit to the wage bill, which could be absorbed by merely making the Europa League and winning only one group stage game.
Ultimately I feel Atalanta is ready to move out of midtable purgatory, and they don’t need to continue to act like a 36M euro club, as long as they do so wisely. They’ll never be in the running for Timo Werner or Sandro Tonali, but they can begin to flush out smart cash either for raises or squad depth because of the desirable assets they can churn out through the youth and scouting system to offset an increase in wages. They’re set up to never act out of desperation, and are beginning to demonstrate that they have the ability to consistently remain in the hunt for Italy’s European spots.
