A story drawing to a close, a disciple coming forward: what if he is the natural heir to Gasperini’s cycle?
L’Atalanta sceglie il dopo Gasperini: è un suo discepolo (Ansafoto) – serieanews.com
There is something poignant about seeing a story end after so much happiness. You don’t need a thunderous thud, just a crack. An out-of-tune detail. A final symphony that, rather than a farewell, smacks of weariness. That is what is happening to Gasperini’s Atalanta, which may indeed have taken a downward path.
Not so much for the knockout with Fiorentina itself, but for the impression it left: that of a team that ran out of words before it ran out of energy. A group that gave everything, dared, surprised. But which today seems more fearful than inspired.
The Bergamasks did not collapse: they simply slipped. But at the worst possible time. As Scudetto dreams evaporated, Champions League dreams are crumpling like wet paper. And now, between Roma, Juventus, Bologna and whoever else, the competition is snarling.
Sure, losing to Inter Milan at the San Siro can be okay. But it is the defeat to Fiorentina that really left its mark. Not only for the result, but for the emotional inertia. It’s as if something was really broken.
Gasperini, who has always made hunger his banner, now finds himself managing a group that seems satiated. And he, as an experienced navigator, has realized this before the others: the impression is that his farewell at the end of the season becomes an increasingly concrete hypothesis. Perhaps already written, and perhaps right at Roma despite Ranieri’s denials.
And so, the question is not just “if,” but “how” to move forward. Because replacing an icon is never easy. Doing it without losing one’s identity is even less so.
Palladino e l’Atalanta, le strade si incrociano? Può essere lui il dopo Gasperini
And here something curious happens. Because Fiorentina-Atalanta was also – perhaps above all – the challenge between master and pupil. With the latter having, for the first time, the upper hand.
Palladino e l’Atalanta, le strade si incrociano? Può essere lui il dopo Gasperini (AnsaFoto) – serieanews.com
Raffaele Palladino beat his inspirer with brilliant play and a finally convincing Fiorentina. A team capable, over the course of the season, of putting all the top seven in the standings under, with the exception of Napoli.
But there is a strange dissonance in Florence. For despite the results, the former Monza man never seems to have really won the locker room’s heart, nor that of the upper echelons. Rumors tell of cold relations, of a feeling that never fully blossomed. And the future, at this point, appears anything but a foregone conclusion.
Atalanta observes. It evaluates. And, perhaps, prepares the ground. Thiago Motta is also being evaluated, it is true. But the ex-Juve has a more hybrid feel, less adhering to Gasp’s philosophy. Palladino, on the other hand, is there in the background, but increasingly in focus. He brings a modern vision, but one already shaped on Gasperinian principles: intensity, high aggression, fluidity. And he has the age – and the hunger – to accept such an important challenge.
In an ideal world, it would seem like the perfect transition. Not revolutionary, but evolutionary. A natural passing of the baton, as occurs between those who recognize themselves in the same football alphabet. Only written with a different pen.
This article Atalanta chooses post-Gasperini: he is his disciple appeared in its original version first on SerieANews.
