There is a subliminal message that Gian Piero Gasperini launches on the Dublin night: he is in blue jeans in the final that crowns Atalanta queen of the Europa League. It had never happened that he went on the bench with the blue canvas trousers that were historically used by the porters of the port of Genoa and which, when exported to the United States, became the legendary and imperishable blue jeans that never go out of fashion. Literal translation: Genoa blue. When landing in Marsala, Garibaldi, like many of the Thousand, also wore a pair of what were then called “the Genoese” and which are preserved in Rome in the Risorgimento Museum at the Vittoriale.
Gasperini did not forget how fundamental Genoa and Genoa were in his professional growth in the post-match interviews: “I played the same football and achieved important results even when I was at Genoa, but with Atalanta playing in the Cups I had more visibility and the compliments of colleagues of great value”. He was referring to Guardiola and Klopp, but in his time at Genoa it was Mourinho who went out of his way, only a few months after Capello, in a professional tone, had slammed him on Domenica Sportiva: “Gasperini must learn quickly what Serie A is” . He obviously learned it.
It would be cloying at the moment of Gasp’s triumph to rag on the self-harm of Preziosi who, at the end of the 2015-16 championship, gave him the sack, with a severance pay of one million, despite still having one year left on his contract and despite the 46 points and the final tenth place in the season that followed the shock of not participating in the Europa League, in favor of Sampdoria, because the club’s accounts were not in order.
The present and above all the future of Genoa is called Alberto Gilardino. He plays different football than Gasperini but has the same fire inside him and this is a guarantee for the fans. If anything, from a footballing point of view, Gilardino is reminiscent of Gigi Simoni, a gentleman of the bench, another coach much loved by the rossoblù fans. Adequately supported by the club, Gilardino can take Genoa far.
His is traditional football, not visionary and transgressive like that of Gasp. But on the pitch there is a solid team and an extremely cohesive group. And tomorrow, by beating Bologna, he would end his first season in Serie A with 49 points, one more than Gasp’s first season in the top flight.
