'Gasperini tried to physically attack me' - Gomez explains Atalanta exit

The Argentine attacker has opened up on the event that eventually led to his abrupt departure from Stadio di Bergamo.

Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gomez asserts Gian Piero Gasperini “tried to physically attack” him for ignoring instruction and insists a lack of an apology from the manager is the reason why he left Atalanta.

Gomez put an end to his seven-year stay at Atalanta last January and switched to Sevilla on a €5 million transfer.

The 33-year-old’s transfer was one that raised eyebrows considering he had been a mainstay in the team. He had helped the Serie A side get two successive Serie A second-place finishes and reach their very first Champions League quarter-finals while racking up a tally of 59 goals and 71 assists in over 250 appearances.

In a recent interview with Argentine daily La Nacion, the attacker reveals he had a fallout with the club’s manager, which explains his abrup transfer.

“I disobeyed him in a tactical indication,” Gomez began. “There were 10 minutes left until the first half was over and he asked me to play on the right, while I was playing very well on the left. And I said no.

“Having done that in the middle of the game, with the cameras … it was perfectly [fine] that he got angry. I already knew that at half-time he was going to take me out, and so [he did].

“But in the halftime locker room he exceeded the limits and tried to physically attack me. When there is physical aggression, it is already intolerable.

“So I asked for a meeting with the president of the club, Antonio Percassi, and I told him that I had no problem continuing, accepting that I had been wrong: as a captain I had not behaved well, I had been a bad example disobeying the coach. But I told the president that I needed an apology from Gasperini.”

“The next day there was a meeting of the entire team. I apologised to the coach and my teammates for what had happened. And I did not receive any apology from the coach.

“After a few days I communicated to the president that I did not want to be at Atalanta working with Gasperini. The president told me that he was not going to let me out, that he was not going to release me. The tug of war began and the costs were for me that they separated me from the squad and I ended up training only with the reserves.

“It was ugly because after seven years they left me lying there, after everything I gave the club. They behaved badly. The president did not have the balls to ask the coach to simply apologize to me. That was the end of everything.”