Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini has confirmed that Dutch midfielder Teun Koopmeiners wants to leave the club to join Juventus. After months of being courted by Bianconeri, Koopmeiners has come to a standoff with his current club. This was revealed by Gasperini, in a striking interview with “L’Eco di Bergamo,” where he shared the following comments:
“The situation was going very well until last week, then Koopmeiners decided to go to Juventus, to not play and not train with us anymore. He already has an agreement with Juve, he feels stressed. With this attitude, he cannot be useful to either the team or his teammates.”
“The club has taken a very firm stance because it feels blackmailed by the situation. This situation is different from other times when Atalanta has sold at a high price,” adds Gasperini. In recent weeks, the ownership has repeatedly emphasized the player’s centrality in the Nerazzurri project. Luca Percassi had said, “His sale was never in our plans.”
“Atalanta have been unlucky in losing three such important players (besides Koopmeiners, also Scamacca and Scalvini, who are injured). We are at the minimum, the club will provide, but at this moment the team is much less competitive compared to the end of last season. There are still three situations that the club is working on.”
The market is heating up in Bergamo, not only in terms of arrivals. There are also exits, including Touré, who has requested a transfer, and Bakker, with whom the relationship never took off. “I am disappointed when situations like those of El Bilal or Mitchel occur because they end up weighing heavily. Djimsiti in Qatar? He decided to stay.”
