Gasperini announces a change of heart on leaving Atalanta

Gian Piero Gasperini

has said that he was ready to leave

at the end of last season, but he stayed in Bergamo because he loves the fans and respects the club's owners.

Gasperini took over as manager of Atalanta in 2016 after the team had finished in the bottom half of

Serie A

for five straight years. The former Inter boss oversaw a big change in the club's fortunes right away. He brought in a relentlessly attacking style and got them to fourth place in his first season, then led them to three third-place finishes in a row from 2018-19 to 2020-21.

During the last two of those seasons, Atalanta scored 188 league goals and made it to the knockout stages of the Champions League both times. But last season, they lost steam and finished eighth in Serie A. This led to rumors that Gasperini, who is 64 years old, might leave.

Gasperini said in May that he didn't know what he would do next, but he has now said that he wants to stay in Bergamo and build a new "young and strong" team. "I have a lot of respect for [Atalanta president Antonio] Percassi and am grateful for him. I told him, "Maybe you have to go," but he didn't want that at all," he said to La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"Now, we have the drive to start over. I'm still here because I feel very connected to the city. I was very aware of what the people wanted, and that changed me. I was ready to leave if the club had asked me to. Atalanta will be a strong, young woman. The people are why I stayed. Someone wants to get even.

"We are not big, we are working to become big. Between now and then, we'll fight and have fun." Last season, it was hard for Gasperini's team because strikers

and Josip Ilicic were out for long stretches. Between them, they only scored 13 league goals and played 1,732 and 836 minutes of Serie A football.

And he thinks that the club's problems got worse because they didn't spend a lot on new players after getting money from the Champions League. He also said, "New energies would have helped us." "We've made some big sales and made a lot of money from the Champions League, but we've stayed pretty much the same, especially up front.

"With the resources, we had available in the last two years, it was the right time to bring in a new star-like [now-Sevilla attacker]

Alejandro Gomez

and Ilicic. Some more profiles have come in.

"They didn't do what I asked, and we were on the edge." Gasperini's seventh season with Atalanta will start on August 13 when they go to Sampdoria. Eight days later, they will host the champions, Milan.

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