Papu Gomez Opens Up On Atalanta Exit
Papu Gomez has opened up on his acrimonious exit from Atalanta to Sevilla, insisting that a physical confrontation with manager Gian Piero Gasperini was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
Gomez brought a seven-year spell in Bergamo to a close in January after a breakdown in relationship with Gasperini.
It all started in a Champions League game against Midtjylland in December 2020 when Gomez ignored tactical instructions from Gasperini, who hooked him off at half time.
The pair’s relationship did not get better and Atalanta granted Gomez’s wish by sanctioning a transfer to Sevilla in January.
"I disobeyed him in a tactical indication," Gomez told newspaper La Nacion of how the controversy 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," the 33-year-old added.
"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 apologise to me. That was the end of everything."
"People don't know what happened, so I'm just now telling it," Gomez added. "People are going to know the truth now, and they deserve it and I deserve it.
"From one day to the next, I disappeared. The journalists stopped asking about me in Atalanta, nor do they ask my ex-teammates. It's like I stopped existing for Atalanta.
"I think their intention was to place all the blame on me. And the truth is not that. And people, perhaps, are angry with me because it is thought that I did not want to continue in Atalanta, or it is believed that I preferred to go to Seville for more money. None of that. It was time for the fans to know the truth."
