Cast your minds back to 2006, Italy had just won the World Cup and calcio was rocked by by the infamous Calciopoli scandal.
Words: Tom Scholes
The whole of Italian football was under a dark cloud but amongst the scandals and controversy, a little club by the name of Genoa had just appointed Gian Piero Gasperini as their new Coach.
Cast your minds back to 2006, Italy had just won the World Cup and calcio was rocked by by the infamous Calciopoli scandal.
Words: Tom Scholes
The whole of Italian football was under a dark cloud but amongst the scandals and controversy, a little club by the name of Genoa had just appointed Gian Piero Gasperini as their new Coach.
The Grifone were languishing in Serie B following a few years in Serie C after a match fixing scandal, but Gasperini was the man to lead Genoa back to the top flight in his first season and eventually took them to Europe with players such as Diego Milito and Thiago Motta.
In fact during this spell with Genoa, Jose Mourinho claimed that Gasperini was the one tactician who caused him the most trouble whilst in the Inter hot seat, and such praise must have caught the attention of then-Inter owner and chairman Massimo Moratti.
On June 24 2011, Moratti announced that Gasperini would be replacing Leonardo at the start of the 2011-2012 season and was set to lead Inter in the long term following his sacking from Genoa just months prior.
It was a big summer for Inter, who tried to make the first team younger while trying to balance the books by selling some bigger name players for large fees, as they did with players such as Samuel Eto’o – who moved to Anzhi for €30m – and Goran Pandev who moved to Napoli.
Gasperini oversaw the arrivals of younger players such as Luc Castaignos from Feyenoord, Ricky Alvarez from Velez Sarsfield and a loan deal for Sampdoria for 21-year-old Andrea Poli. Diego Forlan was brought in as a cheaper option than Eto’o, only costing €5m.
Nevertheless, Gasperini still had the core of Mourinho’s Champions League winning side with Julio Cesar, Javier Zanetti, Esteban Cambiasso, Lucio, Walter Samuel, Maicon, Cristian Chivu, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Milito, Gasperini’s former front man at Genoa. On paper, this still looked like a very solid and respectable group of players, if perhaps slightly past their respective primes.
The season opener was the Supercoppa Italiana against arch-rivals Milan, but Inter fell to a 2-1 loss. Just a bump in the road, surely? Not quite, as Gasperini’s side lost the next game against Palermo, then the following match against Trabzonspor in the Champions League. It was a disastrous start, but a point at home to Roma looked like it was going to be the start of an upturn in fortune.
Unfortunately for Gasperini, Novara had other ideas.
Novara won 3-1 against Inter. Yes, that’s right, little Novara beat the Beneamata Inter 3-1 and it spelled the end for Gasperini, despite only being in charge for five games. In those five games he picked up just one point and lost four games across three different competitions.
It was shocking by any standards, let alone a club like Inter. The defeat against Novara left Inter in 15th place, and Moratti had enough. Gian Piero Gasperini was promptly sacked.
It was an ill-fated spell at the biggest club Gasperini has coached, and it will always be remembered as a failure.
Thankfully for his case, his time at Genoa and now with Atalanta, his reputation has arguably never been higher.
He may not have have been able to work his magic at San Siro, but Gasperini can return to face his former side with his head held high.