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  • Opinion It could have been much worse, by Guille Uzquiano

Two hours before the Champions League draw,

Papu

Gómez

fanned the fire that consumes Atalanta from the inside.

As times dictate, he did it with an

Instagram

story

.

«I am writing here because I have no other way to defend myself and talk to you.

I just want to tell you that when I leave the truth of everything will be known.

You know me and you know the person I am.

He loves you, your captain.

It is the latest chapter in an internal war that broke out two weeks ago.

There are two months left to face Real Madrid and Atalanta does not know if their captain or their coach, pillars of the team that fell in love with Europe, will remain at the club.

The wick lit in the match against Midtjylland.

There were a few minutes until the break, Atalanta did not know how to hurt the Danes and

Gian Piero Gasperini

asked

Papu

to open up to the band.

The Italian press has been writing about what happened during the break for two weeks.

The versions do not agree on whether they came to blows, but they did agree that there was a strong dispute between the coach and his star.

The only clear thing is that the Argentine refused and did not go out to play in the second half.

That he did not enter the squad against Udinese (although the rain would later be suspended), and that he did not play a single minute against Fiorentina.

Without truce

Since that dispute,

Papu

Gómez has only played against Ajax and because Atalanta was risking their lives in the Champions League.

It was not even a quiet truce because in the previous one there was more talk about a possible resignation of Gasperini.

The coach is still on the bench for now and this Sunday, after beating Fiore (3-0), he left the ball on the club's roof.

«I don't think this is the moment of separation between

Papu

and me.

The difficult decisions must be made by the club, "said the Italian coach.

«At the base there always has to be trust, disposition.

Otherwise, everything is more difficult.

I do not know how to overcome this, "he added about his current relationship with the Argentine.

And so you get to the

Instagram

stories

: that same night, after spending 90 minutes on the bench,

Papu

Gómez published a photo with his agent and this Monday, just before the Champions League draw, that message that fuels the rumors of its exit in the winter market.

A few days ago

Sky Sports

published that Al-Nassr had returned to the charge for the Argentine.

Last summer the UAE team offered him to triple his salary, although he would see with better eyes going to Turin.

And meanwhile Atalanta, who fell in love with Europe with an offensive football without modesty, see how the glory hangs from that fracture between two of their idols.

Gasperini, the ideologue of that effervescent game ("defending makes you invincible, but if you want to win you have to attack," he says, using a Chinese proverb) and

Papu

, captain and star of the team.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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