Atalanta: ‘No regrets over Palladino, no concrete interest in Palestra’

Atalanta CEO Luca Percassi insists there are no regrets they didn’t hire Raffaele Palladino earlier, and assures there is ‘nothing concrete’ between Inter and Marco Palestra.

It kicks off at the New Balance Arena in Bergamo at 19.45 GMT (20.45 CET).

You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens from today’s four Serie A games in the Liveblog.

La Dea have been well and truly revitalised since Palladino took over from sacked Ivan Juric, winning seven of their last eight games in all competition, including a Champions League victory over Chelsea.

Are there regrets that they didn’t hire Palladino first?

“Football is made up of choices. There was a spell in the season when we needed new enthusiasm, Palladino brought that, we are very satisfied with his work and also aware of how much more we need to improve,” Percassi told DAZN Italia.

Atalanta played in five of the last seven editions of the Champions League, and won the Europa League in one of the others.

“This season has seen us be super protagonists in the Champions League, whereas in Serie A there have been ups and downs. We have made strong investments and know it is not easy to maintain the team in the European positions when there is so much competition.

“The squad has a lot of quality, so we want to continue along this path, improving in Serie A, because that is the most important tournament for us.”

Ademola Lookman and Odilon Kossounou are at the Africa Cup of Nations, while Raoul Bellanova and Mitchel Bakker are injured.

There have been reports that Atalanta-owned Marco Palestra could be brought back to Bergamo from his Cagliari loan in January, or potentially sold for a big profit to Inter.

“That is not a major issue for us right now. We want Palestra to prove what he can do, as he has been in our academy since he was a little boy. If something were to happen that was concrete, we’d evaluate it, but so far there is only newspaper talk and we are very proud that he is an Atalanta player, yet another example for those coming out of our academy,” assured Percassi.

Atalanta have a famously awful record against Inter, losing each of their last eight meetings in all competition.

Their most recent victory was 4-1 in November 2018, followed by five draws and 10 defeats.