We all know about Gian Piero Gasperini’s courage in throwing young players in at the deep end. That's just who he is. The 59-year-old began his coaching career in Juventus’ academy and he’s never lost his passion for developing the next generation. At Genoa, he gave the likes of Stephan El Shaarawy, Mattia Perin, Stefano Sturaro and Rolando Mandragora the chance to make their top flight debuts.
This made Gasp the perfect manager for Atalanta, a club known as the Nursery of Italy for its history of producing talented youngsters. Gasperini contributed greatly to Atalanta making €90m in profits over the last nine months on homegrown players. He gave them the structure and the game time to show their true potential.
Just as impressive, you have to say, is the track record Gasperini has of taking players once considered the next big thing who ultimately amounted to little. The lost boys. Gasperini transforms them.
He’s a kind of football whisperer. Whatever he says he pushes buttons other managers clearly missed. If Suso is now a senior Spain international and Milan’s most decisive outfield player, it’s down to the six months he spent on loan at Genoa under Gasperini’s care. Torino paid Milan a club record €14m for M’Baye Niang principally because of the flashes he showed at Marassi when Gasp seemed to figure out a puzzle that was beyond all his peers.
It makes you wonder what might have been had Milan appointed Gasperini. Look, for instance, at the work he has done with Andrea Petagna and Bryan Cristante, both former Milan youth products seemingly without a future at the highest level. Capped by Italy since moving to Atalanta, the pair of them are now playing in Europe and attracting interest of a prestige that must come as a surprise to the fans who witnessed them struggle at Ascoli and Palermo. Is it any wonder Gasperini is now referred to as King Midas in Bergamo? Everything he touches turns to gold.
While Petagna was one of the surprise stories of last season, Cristante is very much the revelation of the current campaign, matched only by Luis Alberto of Lazio. Cristante is Atalanta’s top scorer - and he’s a midfielder, not a striker. Last Thursday, he scored twice and won a penalty - which Papu Gomez missed - as the Dea recorded the biggest ever win by an Italian side on English soil, smashing Everton 5-1 at Goodison. “It’s the best night of my life,” he said.
On Monday, Cristante was at it again. His goal was all that separated Atalanta and Benevento. It was his fourth game in a row on the scoresheet. The eighth goal of the season for Cristante. Five have come from Gomez crosses. It’s become one of Serie A’s trademark go-to combos and shares a lot in common with the relationship between Lorenzo Insigne and Jose Callejon at Napoli. Ball from the left to the far post. Goal. It’s as simple as that, no matter how hard the opponent tries to stop it. Cristante’s head gave Atalanta the lead in Naples and got them a point against Juventus.
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The turnaround in his young career - Cristante is still only 22 - is quite remarkable. Cristante, you may recall, has been on the scene since he was 16 when Max Allegri handed him a debut for Milan in the Champions League against Viktoria Pilsen. He then scored, as fate would have it, against Atalanta in one of the three Serie A appearance he made in red and black.
Milan then sold Cristante for €6m to Benfica in 2014 and for a time he became a symbol of Italian football’s unwillingness to give youth a chance, his pathway blocked by overpaid and over-the-hill veterans like Sulley Muntari, Michael Essien and Mathieu Flamini. Milan’s attitude has changed - see Gigio Donnarumma and Manuel Locatell - but the change came too late for Cristante.
At the time, it caused great uproar. Fears Milan were making exactly the same mistake they had with Pierre Emerick Aubameyang did not go unexpressed. Aubameyang came through Milan’s academy without ever receiving the recognition his talent deserved and is now one of the best strikers in the world. Initially, though, Cristante did nothing to make Milan regret his sale. Fly with the eagles, he most certainly did not. The hope Benfica would develop Cristante in the way they have other talented youngsters went unfulfilled.
“The first year went quite well with Jorge Jesus,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport. “Then under Rui Vitoria I didn’t get a lot of game-time and I asked to leave.” Cristante returned to Italy with Palermo, a club in perennial state of self-combustion. “I remember the first day. They were already changing manager as I landed: Iachini for Ballardini. Then Zamparini called Ballardini back and got rid of Iachini. It was mental. I didn’t get it. I lost count of the managers that were sacked.” At Pescara, Cristante didn’t fare much better. Newly promoted to Serie A, the team had largely been broken up and Cristante could see by Christmas “the situation was almost compromised.”
He joined Atalanta on loan last January just as Roberto Gagliardini moved to Inter and Franck Kessie left for the Africa Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast. Expectations weren’t high. Certainly no one predicted Cristante would be playing for Italy come October. But that’s Gasperini. A coach as adept at giving second chances as he is debuts. Someone who contemplates a scrapheap and sees a challenge. As a salvage operation, consider Cristante a big success.
Neat and tidy, he has mastered the late run into the box and is a big part of why Inter coach Luciano Spalletti decided to call Atalanta “a basketball team.” Look at the hang-time Cristante gets on those headers. He’s busy too. You have to be to play in a team as intense and aggressive as Gasperini’s Atalanta.
“Bryan’s an extraordinary player. I don’t know about [the Frank Lampard comparisons] but he’s the kind of midfielder who can do both phases [playing with and without the ball]. He has this physicality that allows him to give us a hand when we’re defending and this ability to then go and get us a goal.”
The alchemist Gasperini has done it again. Turning lead into gold. A rough diamond into Cristante.
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