Walter Sabatini had never been relegated before and had no intention of going down either. In the bleak midwinter of 2022, the algorithm-allergic sporting director, an old romantic of football, took over Salernitana in dire straits. Statistical models showed they had a seven per cent chance of survival. Fans printed it on T-shirts. Only 10 days of the January transfer window remained when he joined. Sucking on his vape, Sabatini had to make each and every one of them count.The wreaths of smoke surrounding him never clouded his vision. Few sporting directors have Sabatini’s eye.A decade earlier, one of his assistants at Roma, Simone Beccaccioli, knocked on his door and suggested he turn a Corinthians game on. “It’s why I always leave my door open,” Sabatini said. A teenager playing at the back for the Sao Paulo outfit stood out. There was next to no hype around the boy. He was a total unknown. “The lad was 16 but played with the authority of a 28-year-old,” Sabatini recalled. The deal Roma did for the young defender was the “most spectacular” of Sabatini’s career. Roma acquired him for €3million. Barely a year later, they flipped him to Paris Saint-Germain for 10 times that figure, an astonishing profit margin.What looked expensive at the time, now, in retrospect, appears a bargain for PSG too. In Munich last May, the same player lifted the Champions League trophy as captain of the club. The player was Marquinhos. Bringing out the trophy at the Allianz Arena was his former team-mate, Javier Pastore, another player Sabatini brought to Europe. Palermo were the first club to benefit from the Qatari takeover of PSG. Their first statement signing to launch the project was the €42m purchase of the lanky and languorous Argentine playmaker.Sabatini’s sensibility for South Americans has always been one of his great strengths. It did not desert him in Salernitana’s hour of need. Another Corinthians game was on that January. Another player gave him that feeling. “I am not impressed by the ordinary. I want something special. And in that case, I saw it,” Sabatini explained to Gazzetta dello Sport. One of Corinthians’ midfielders received the ball in traffic. Opponents closed in and it didn’t matter. He turned, burst forward, bearing straight down on goal and, upon losing the ball, immediately won it back. “One move.” That was all it took for Sabatini to be convinced. Once again, it was sentiment over science. Adjusted for inflation, the player cost more or less the same as Marquinhos.In the end, Salernitana upset the odds. “Virtually relegated”, they stayed up in real life. Decisive to their survival was the no-name midfielder Sabatini plucked out of Brazil. Four months after touching down in Italy, Atalanta bought him for €23m. The player in question? Ederson, who is now set to join Manchester United.It was in Bergamo, under the tutelage of Gian Piero Gasperini, that everyone began to sit up and take notice of this dynamic blade runner. Sabatini considered Gasperini perfect for his protege. He completed Ederson, making the most of his ability to recover the ball and play man-to-man without, in Sabatini’s estimation, taking away his ‘ginga‘, the rhythmic and dance-like swagger “typical of Pele’s generation”.Gian Piero Gasperini developed Ederson (Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)At Anfield in 2024, Ederson was everywhere as Atalanta beat Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool 3-0 in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final. A month later, Atalanta became the only Italian team to win the competition this century, and the first since Parma in 1999, with another demolition job in the final in Dublin, where Xabi Alonso’s hitherto undefeated Bayer Leverkusen were blown away by the same scoreline.Hat-trick hero Ademola Lookman stole the show that night. But no one was under any illusion as to Atalanta’s most valuable player. “I’ve been fortunate enough to coach a lot of very good players,” Gasperini said in a press conference. “In terms of physicality, regains and the timing of his runs, Ederson is definitely an extraordinary player, one cut out for teams at the very highest level. It surprises me he still doesn’t play for Brazil, even if he’s often been called up. But that’ll come.”Curiously for Ederson, the wait goes on. When Carlo Ancelotti announced his 26-man squad for the World Cup, attention focused on one decision in particular. Neymar “cried for hours” when he heard of his unexpected, last-minute inclusion. Video of Joao Pedro’s friends and family went viral as they, by contrast, learned and despaired that it came at their loved one’s expense. Ederson’s absence from the list, meanwhile, went largely unnoticed. Ancelotti picked Fabinho and Danilo to back up Bruno Guimaraes and Casemiro.Make no mistake, this has not been a vintage year by Ederson’s standards. The same, it must be said, is true of Atalanta as a whole. Gasperini left after nearly a decade in charge. Moving on from the great coach in the history of the club was never going to be easy. He’d normalised overachievement at Atalanta, taking the club to new heights and keeping them there longer after many forecast regression.Atalanta finished seventh in Serie A, but after Gasperini’s long spell in charge, it has been less settled in the dugout. Ivan Juric failed, even as a Gasperini disciple, to provide continuity and struggled for credibility after his dismissals from Roma and Southampton last season. The cantankerous Croatian lasted until November. His replacement Raffaele Palladino started well, but things unravelled over the spring, and he now finds himself under review.Lookman was not alone in sensing the team was at the end of a cycle last summer and that the time had come to move on. But players hoping for a departure were told they were going nowhere. Atalanta didn’t need to sell after Gasperini left them in the Champions League, and Al Qadsiah paid more than €60m for Serie A top scorer Mateo Retegui.Ederson remains one of the great talent-spotter’s best finds (Photo: Alessio Morgese/NurPhoto via Getty Images)Injuries have also held Ederson back. The meniscus in his right knee needed a clean and arthroscopic surgery ruled him out through the early autumn months. Lookman eventually got his move to Atletico Madrid in January and, frankly, ever since Atalanta lost the Coppa Italia semi-final and their slim chances of a top-four finish evaporated, the feeling Ederson might follow percolated anew.At his very best, Ederson is like Pac-Man. He gobbles up ground and has a multiplying effect on his teams. Now 26 and entering his prime, the appeal to clubs like Atletico and those, like Manchester United, in the Premier League is obvious.Atalanta’s hustle under Gasperini was very English in tempo. He will not need time getting up to speed. All Ederson has to do is recover his consistency. A summer off will no doubt help.Out of contract next summer, United’s offer of €40.5m plus €4.5m in add-ons represents good value even considering Ederson was, ambitiously, talked about as the next record sale out of Bergamo, one to surpass even what United paid for Rasmus Hojlund a couple of years ago. United fans will no doubt hope Ederson, whose arrival is expected to be formalised in July, is more successful and that his signing is backed with more than the endorsement of former executive John Murtough, who became Atalanta’s director of global development last summer.Predicting the future is a fool’s game. At least the past tells us Sabatini knows a player when he sees one. Ederson remains one of his best finds.