Gian Piero Gasperini reveals Nicolò Zaniolo offered himself to Atalanta, rages at players ‘cheating’ and reveals he receives a percentage of players’ transfer fees when they leave.
Atalanta boss Gasperini released a long interview with Il Corriere dello Sport on Saturday, where he didn’t only talk about Italy’s painful elimination from EURO 2024.
Gasperini often argues with referees but admits that new rules and even VAR have made match officials’ lives difficult.
“I must admit that their job has become impossible because of complicated rules,” he said.
“When it comes to contacts and handball, it’s a mess! There are too many different interpretations and too many differences between the leagues. Serie A and European competitions are two different sports. Look at the Euros. VAR hasn’t been used much, but it is used more often in Serie A. VAR decisions must be disciplined once and for all. Another thing that drives me mad is seeing players diving.”
Another thing that really upsets him is to see players diving. In the past, he criticised Federico Chiesa and Ciro Immobile for this reason. However, it was nothing personal.
“When a footballer dives, I get really mad. This is cheating. I didn’t protest against the single players,” he said.
“If a referee on the pitch is unable to assess the contact, he’d better change his job. Football without contact becomes more ugly. Like systematic passes to goalkeepers, IFAB should do something to avoid this nonsense, a perversion,” continued Gasp.
“Do you realise that in today’s football, the player with the most touches is the goalkeeper? I find speculative football horrible. Football should not go backwards but towards the opponents’ goal.”
Many say that when a player leaves Atalanta, he is no longer able to reproduce the same standard of performance at his new club.
“It’s a myth,” Insisted Gasperini.
“Look at Mancini and Cristante at Roma, Kessié, [Cristian] Romero and Hojlund at Man United…”
At the same time, many footballers look reborn in Bergamo under Gasp among them Gianluca Scamacca and Charles De Ketelaere. Will Nicolò Zaniolo be the next one?
“Atalanta can’t afford big-money signings, so they must look for opportunities. Have De Ketelaere and Scamacca improved? Partially. It was just the first season,” said Gasp.
As for Zaniolo, “One day, Borriello called me and said, ‘Mister, I have a player who wants to join you. He is strong, a beast.’ I replied, ‘Who is he? Zaniolo?’ I spoke to D’Amico and then Percassi. I was interested, so he arrived.”
Gasperini confirmed that he receives a percentage of the transfer fee when a player leaves the club.
“At the end of the first season, we sold Caldara, Kessié, Conti, Bastoni and Gagliardini. I had a low salary so Percassi rewarded me and this nice tradition has continued every year.”
How much freedom does he give to his players?
“All they need within the team’s organisation. I copy, I observe, I take notes and sometimes I repeat, but I look at everyone and everything.”
Was he tempted to join Napoli after winning the Europa League in May?
“I thought about it, and at some point during the season, I thought the time had come to leave Atalanta,” he admitted.
“But I wanted to leave in a good way, without controversy or disappointments. We won and in the end Bergamo and its people prevailed. Napoli have hired Conte, fans can’t surely be disappointed.”