Gian Piero Gasperini bites back at Pep Guardiola’s famous quote about facing Atalanta, insisting ‘success is not just lifting a trophy’ and ‘football cannot just be the result at all costs.’
The coach was one of the speakers at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, organised by La Gazzetta dello Sport, and looked back over his extraordinary time in Bergamo.
Coming to Atalanta in the summer of 2016 and overseeing different generations of Dea players come through, he is the closest thing Italian football has to a Sir Alex Ferguson figure at Manchester United.
Yet it was only a few months ago that he lifted his first piece of silverware, the Europa League, beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the Final.
Gasperini sees beyond Atalanta silverware
“Success is not just lifting that trophy, even if it was an incredible night and represents all the hard work we’ve done over the years,” said Gasperini.
“I always fought against this mentality of the result being the only thing, at all costs. Football cannot just be that, the goal is to surpass yourself and your own limitations.
“There is a journey that each of us in football goes through, but success is not just the result. Too often this idea gets created to put pressure on, but mistakes help us to learn and improve.”
Atalanta were accustomed to bouncing up and down between Serie A and B, but Gasperini has taken them to be Champions League regulars.
“There is great passion for the team in this city and I have a strong sense of belonging. My ideas were taken on by the club and enjoyed by the fans. It was initially a very young squad that gave me a great deal of satisfaction, they had this real adrenaline within them. In those days, we’d always score in the opening 20 minutes of every match.”
This man-for-man approach has earned Atalanta a reputation in Europe, where Manchester City manager Guardiola famously said playing against them was ‘like going to the dentist.’ Is it something Gasp appreciates?
“I think we’ve gone beyond that, because Atalanta don’t just try to do damage limitation, we aim to hurt the opponents and create something beautiful. We take that attitude regardless of who we are up against.”
That was perfectly encapsulated by the 3-0 Europa League victory away to Liverpool, where even the Anfield crowd stood up and applauded that performance.
“It was genuinely a special night, above all because the Reds fans applauded us at the end of the game. That just wouldn’t happen in Italy and I would love for that to change.”
That helped earn Gasperini a nomination for 2024 Manager of the Year.