Atalanta really put in a performance of a lifetime against the unbeatable Bayer Leverkusen and ended their invincibility in the UEFA Europa League Final. As impressive Leverkusen have been all season long, Atalanta really conjured up something special to beat Xabi Alonso’s incredible team 3-0.
An emphatic scoreline and a supreme display, courtesy of one Ademola Lookman. The Nigerian put in probably the best individual performance ever seen in a Europa League Final as his hat-trick deflated the German Champions, becoming the first person to do so while at it.
With all the talk about Leverkusen, Atalanta’s amazing season really went under the radar with their shocking yet mightily impressive win over Liverpool in the Quarter Finals of the second tier of European football the pick of the lot. It really hasn’t been said enough, but Gian Piero Gasperini has done an amazing job with this team and made top managers look helpless.
Carrying on that trend, after Atalanta’s triumph, former Fulham manager Scott Parker has come under intense scrutiny for his management of his talented team back in the 2020/21 season.
After Lookman delivered a world-class performance in a big European final, it meant another talent part of Parker’s Fulham side that got relegated has made it big and showed his ceiling after leaving the club.
It’s becoming quite a trend honestly and fans of the London club are in disbelief.
Even Aleksandr Mitrovic was part of the relegated side, who has been performing really well since Parker’s departure. Not to forget he is currently tearing it up in the Saudi League for Al-Hilal, guiding them to the league title over Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr.
Even cogs such as André-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Ruben-Loftus Cheek have made a name for themselves after leaving the club. While Anguissa won the Serie A with Napoli as a key member of the amazing Luciano Spalleti team last season, the coveted former Chelsea talent Loftus-Cheek has not shied away from showing why he is one of Europe’s most gifted players at AC Milan.
If that wasn’t enough, players like Joachim Andersen and Mario Remina have impressed in the Premier League itself with Crystal Palace and Wolverhampton respectively. The former has even made a name for himself under the exciting stewardship of new manger Oilver Glasner as one of the best ball-playing centre backs in the league.
These very players, whose talents and qualities are much appreciated, were at the disposal of Scott Parker at Fulham. It’s a shame really that this group weren’t able to punch above their weight and achieve big things considering the amount of sheer talent stacked in this team.
To rub it in further, Marco Silva the current manager at Fulham and Parker’s successor, has really got the team playing to his tunes with a far less gifted squad.
That’s not to say Scott Parker isn’t a quality manager. Far from it. Afterall, he did guide Fulham to promotion in the first place. But with the all the talent available to him, one can’t help but wonder what could have been.
