Atalanta’s Silence: How the Club Mishandled the Gasperini-Lookman Controversy

It’s no secret that the football world has gone agog following Gasperini’s comment about his key role player and African best player Ademola Lookman.

“Lookman is the worst penalty taker I’ve ever seen” “He shouldn’t have taken the penalty”

Many would wonder in all this, why is the club Atalanta being dragged for their disposition on the matter, after all it wasn’t Atalanta who disrespected Ademola?

Now permit me to enlighten you on what could have altered the course of this story.

When Gasperini made that statement, the club could have immediately deliberated on it from a PR perspective and know that it’s going to have a bad look for them then in the same breath come out with a statement to douse the situation by highlighting other aspects of the interview or the match that shows Ademola in good light.

Alternatively they could have had Gasperini release a statement shortly afterwards even if it’s only on their social media handles, claiming that his words were taken out of context or he only said that as a joke!

Lastly they could have reached out to Ademola to let him know that what the coach said was unacceptable and they were looking into it. This will inevitably mean that Ademola will need to sheath his sword, but their silence in the hours that followed provided the consent Ademola needed to reply the coach in his lengthy tweet explaining what happened.

By the time Ademola replied that it was over 12hours and it was late cos any of the above moves would have halted him from going to social media to reply his coach too.

These are some of the things the club could have done to avert the situation. Ademola will leave Atalanta by the next window, he’ll probably have verbal agreements with his next employer and we all know once a player’s mind and heart isn’t in for the club it begins to show in his contributions, which inadvertently lowers his stock and his new employer can get him at a giveaway value based on the reality as at the opening of the transfer window, who would know? Or when Ademola hands in transfer request following the managers utterance, is it Gasperini he’s leaving or Atalanta?? That’s where the club went wrong!

In all we wish Ademola all the best in whatever he decides for his future.