Having left Atalanta for Wolfsburg in Germany, Joakim Maehle thought he was safe to chat about Gian Piero Gasperini while on international duty to the local media.
Unfortunately for him, his criticism of the widely respected Italian manager was quickly picked up and caused anger in Bergamo, forcing the player to since try and backtrack, claiming that he was mistranslated.
That certainly wasn’t the case, and while some players did agree with what he said (Merih Demiral), others, such as Tottenham’s Dejan Kulusevski, backed Gasperini, as pointed out by Fotbollskanalen.
The Spurs star played under the now 65-year-old as he came through at Atalanta from the U17s to the first-team, and only had nice things to say about him.
He said: “I think that all footballers should have the opportunity to be trained by him. He is an incredible coach. He really is that good, but absolutely, he is very old school. It’s very tough every day. You must be ready. You must do exactly as he says.
“So it’s clear that it’s hard mentally to be with him every day, but as a young player, there is no one better in the world to be with. Therefore, I wish Emil [Holm] the best of luck and that he will learn a lot and hopefully develop.”
Maehle was initially reported as saying that Gasperini ‘decided everything’, that it was ‘very tough mentally’ for him there and he ‘only felt like a shirt number’.
Following the Tottenham player’s comments and the criticism he has received for his initial comments, he has since come out and said he was ‘sorry about how it was translated’ and that everything that was written was ‘completely wrong’.
In fact, he has ‘absolutely no criticism of Gasperini as a manage in any way’ and that he is a ‘great manager’.
Sure, Joakim, sure.
