Gasperini and Atalanta inspiring the future of Italian football

Gian Piero Gasperini is absolutely right that Atalanta represent meritocracy in a football that wants to build European Super Leagues, which is also why Susy Campanale feels he must reject Napoli interest.

It was always said that a reign like that of Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United could never be possible in Italy, let alone a Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, but Gian Piero Gasperini has well and truly embodied this Atalanta ethos. Maybe the club embodied his ethos instead, or they just found themselves in such a wonderful symbiotic union that we can no longer tell where one ends and the other begins. It simply feels insane to even consider that Gasp could leave Bergamo, especially for a club in a constant state of turmoil like Napoli, where President Aurelio De Laurentiis is determined to take all the credit for success and shove all the blame for failure onto others.

Few remember, but Gasperini had a disastrous start to his time with Atalanta, losing four of his first five Serie A games. Most clubs would’ve sacked him there and then, but the Percassi family famously warned the players that either they followed the orders of this coach or they would be packed off elsewhere. It paid off with the greatest results this club has seen in its 116-year history, now culminating in a Europa League Final.

Atalanta have probably the best youth academy in the country and have done for many years. Unlike most Serie A sides, these players genuinely do come through the ranks to play for the senior squad rather than be used as bargaining chips for loans and transfers. One of them, Matteo Ruggeri, scored a goal in the Europa League semi-final against Olympique Marseille.

If clubs want to become truly sustainable, they need to follow this example and actually use the players they grow in-house, which in turn creates a sense of identity, but also hope that they can make their mark here. You rarely get that feeling at Inter, Juventus, Milan or Napoli. It’s not a coincidence that Atalanta are only the second club after Juve to create an Under-23 team in Serie C.

Gasperini’s eras tour

When these players do flourish, they are sold on at massive profits, which in turn can be reinvested. Did you know that the most expensive signing in Atalanta’s history is El Bilal Toure, secured from Almeria last summer for €29.1m? That’s the kind of money Premier League clubs spend to get a bench player who can come on a few times per season. Up until last season, their biggest buy was Luis Muriel at €21.2m in 2019 from Sevilla. The transfer budget was boosted by the arrival of American investor Stephen Pagliuca, but the general approach remains the same – build value from the ground up, sell at a profit, reinvest.

It is astonishing just how many players have come through Bergamo under Gasperini, yet the team has always retained its unique tactical identity. They press hard, attack in waves, everyone gets involved and it’s not unusual to find the centre-backs joining in the finishing too. You could argue Gasperini’s style has also influenced Simone Inzaghi and the Scudetto-winning Inter, not to mention all those coaches who worked under him like Thiago Motta, Alberto Gilardino, Ivan Juric and Raffaele Palladino.

Gasp said after the 4-1 aggregate victory over Olympique Marseille that Atalanta prove meritocracy is alive and well in football, despite attempts to create a heraldic system of inherited history like the European Super League. I hope they can also set a blueprint for the future of Italian football, where you don’t need to compete with Premier League budgets to star-studded squads, because you have ideas, a clear identity and that oh so precious element of stability. Gasperini knows he’ll never find anything quite like it elsewhere, and certainly not at Napoli, so why would he want to leave? We’ve not yet scratched the surface of what La Dea can achieve.