April 17 (Reuters) - AS Roma manager Gian Piero Gasperini said on Friday he had been taken aback by recent comments from the club's senior adviser Claudio Ranieri, and grew emotional when speaking about his former club Atalanta who he will face on Saturday.
Ranieri came out of retirement last season to return as Roma manager and steered them away from the bottom half of the table to a fifth-place finish before taking over his new role, with Gasperini leaving Atalanta after nine years to take charge.
Ranieri, who had not taken kindly to Gasperini's criticism of the transfer business done by the club, told DAZN recently that no player was signed without the manager's approval.
"For me it was truly an incredible surprise, because there has never, and I mean never, been a different tone between me and Ranieri," Gasperini told reporters.
"From that moment on, I only worried about two things: first, not responding, and second, even if I was involuntarily involved, trying not to create any kind of damage or difficulty for the team.
"I would have liked to try to prevent all this, but it was impossible for me. So from today I would really like us to talk about football."
NO ALIBIS
Ranieri took Roma to within one point of Champions League football last season. Gasperini's side are sixth in the standings, three points off fourth spot.
"For me, for the team, for tomorrow's game, the impact is zero," Gasperini said."We've tried to focus exclusively on the technical side, on the match itself, and for me it's essential not to create alibis or cause damage to the team, to the fans, any kind of damage."
Gasperini explained why he had been so successful at Atalanta.
"The anomaly of Atalanta was that for nine years they played in Europe and against the best Italian and European teams while making profits," Gasperini said.
"That was extraordinary, not only thanks to me, of course, but largely thanks to a club that was extremely capable of working in harmony with the coach.
"At a certain point that harmony changed - partly because the ownership changed, partly because the father, to whom I was certainly more attached, was no longer there."
A visibly emotional Gasperini then stood up and left the room.
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes, editing by Ed Osmond)
