Guido Marilungo     22     Striker     Atalanta

Fans of football clichés get your notebooks ready as here comes a beauty: The one thing that scares defenders is pace. Marilungo has pace in abundance and by 2009 had excelled at youth level for Sampdoria, leading one Il Doria director to describe him as ‘the future of the club’. Samp bedded Marilungo into the first team slowly, limiting his opportunities over two seasons and while he possesses the basics, consistency immediately looked like being the main obstacle to development.

In an attempt to remedy this, a season long loan to Serie B club Lecce was brokered and Marilungo impressed, putting in over thirty appearances for the first team, reaching double figures goal wise, also becoming a regular for the U21 Italian side. On his return to Sampdoria, a five-year-deal was signed and whispers were being made that Marilungo could be the next great Italian forward. Those thoughts were hugely premature, the young striker is very raw and will need to discover that pace needs guile to ensure the sort of career many are hoping for him. While Marilungo is capable of the powerful, he needs to prove he can also do the subtle, the clever.

With the rough edges taken into account, when Samp received an offer from Atalanta to take him permanently, it was accepted. This is by no means a crossroads for the striker, at 22 he has plenty of time to improve but if he is ever to be more than an ok striker, now’s the time to show it. We suspect this is the last time Marilungo will appear on a list of this nature but we’re happy to be proved wrong.

D     Disappointing after such promise, perhaps Serie B was your level?