Atalanta, crazy idea. Motta on the bench if Gasperini leaves

The future of the Atalanta bench seems intertwined with that of Juventus. The premise is that Gian Piero Gasperini has a contract until 2026 and has ruled out a further renewal, but without talking about an early farewell. On Monday, at the award ceremony for the Panchina d'Oro, he reiterated: "I'm very happy where I am, then in all things there is a beginning and an end. The beginning is known, the end is not, but now we live in the present". The present is the race for the first three places. Whether Gasp will remain or not will also depend on the final placement, but not only that. The meetings with Antonio Percassi and Stephen Pagliuca, who have not yet expressed themselves, will be decisive.

In the meantime, like every year, the management is monitoring possible alternative profiles, including (a rumor from the last few hours) that Thiago Motta just fired by Juventus. The starting idea is that the team will remain the same, net of a heavy transfer (one between Lookman and Ederson) and some physiological adjustments, but the block will remain the current one, set up over the years with a certain game and a certain module. They like coaches of “Gasperinian” inspiration, but Italiano and Palladino are busy with ambitious projects in Bologna and Florence. Sarri is free, but his game perhaps wouldn't adapt to the Atalanta players. And Gasperini, in turn, would leave Bergamo only for a big opportunity. There would be Roma, to which the coach winked on Monday ("Who wouldn't like Roma? It's a great place, it's like the national team, everyone likes it"), and obviously Juventus. Hence the connection between Bergamo and the black and white bank of the Po: it will depend on how Tudor goes, on the black and white alternatives and also on the future of Motta. A coach that Atalanta followed carefully, in the summers of 2022 and 2023, when he coached Spezia and Bologna and was monitored as a possible replacement if Gasperini (then a remote possibility) had said goodbye to the Nerazzurri bench. That of the Italian-Brazilian, former Gasp player at Genoa and Inter, would be a possible profile for the succession on the Nerazzurri bench.

In Bergamo, however, the fans are hoping that Gasp will stay and to convince him they are carrying out a 15 thousand euro subscription to make a statue of him. In the meantime, the coach is thinking about facing Fiorentina on Sunday. Perhaps without Retegui, who also underwent therapy yesterday to get rid of the muscle injury to his adductor. A first opportunity as a starter is possible for Daniel Maldini, coming off some ups and downs with Italy, positive at the end of Thursday at San Siro, dull on Sunday in Dortmund. Paradoxically, the son of art has played more in the last week with Italy, 64, than in the championship with the Goddess, just 46. Uphill road so far for the former Rossoneri in Bergamo, immediately slowed down by a muscle problem and then always coming on in difficult games in which the team wasn't working (against Bologna in the Italian Cup, Venice and Inter in the championship). The Goddess - who invested 14 million for this talent with a potential still unexpressed - is hoping for his goals in the final part of the championship. Maybe as early as Sunday at the Franchi.