• The departure of three of the club’s most experienced players surprised no one this summer.
• Thomas Lemar must improve on his first year at the club and Diego Costa must rediscover consistency of fitness and performance.
Image: /REUTERS
Diego Simeone has proved himself a great manager in seven years at Atletico Madrid, but rebuilding them almost from scratch next season might be too much to ask, even for him.
He is already pulling no punches about the size of the task. With 19-year-old Joao Felix on the verge of signing for a club record 120m euros, Simeone told Fox Sports that this was ‘the most difficult’ challenge he had faced since taking over the club.
“There are a lot of players who have left and it’s a complicated moment of transition,” he said. “Players with a lot of weight in the dressing room have gone but the objective is to keep competing.”
The departure of three of the club’s most experienced players surprised no one this summer. Diego Godin was always going to move to Italy and Filipe Luis and Juanfran’s time had run its course. What was not expected was that the younger generation would turn on their heels and head for the exit too. Rodrigo is going to be the new Sergio Busquets but he will not be doing it at Atletico.
Lucas Hernandez was going to be one of the new leaders in the club’s defence but he is set to move to Bayern Munich on July 1. Antoine Griezmann’s departure also seems to have hurt Simeone.
When naming players who have joined the club and improved, during that Fox interview, he said: “Well there’s [Jan] Oblak, who was not the player that he is now, and [Jose] Gimenez who is not the player he is now and Lucas Hernandez who is not the player he is now and … what’s his name? Griezmann, who is not the same player that he is today.”
Perhaps the ‘What’s his name’ was a genuine mistake, or maybe it revealed how hurt Simeone is that Griezmann has left the club that helped make him. It was also an interesting list. Of the four players Simone named, only Jose Gimenez seems to be entrenched at the club determined to give something back to his coach and quite possibly replace Godin as captain and leader.
Lucas and Griezmann are both leaving and although Oblak is staying, the club have had to make him Spain’s highest paid keeper and even now there is a sense that he feels he’s been left behind as everyone else seeks out pastures new.
If David de Gea leaves Manchester United then he will start looking longingly at the exit again. So who is left? Thomas Partey’s head has been turned this summer too but ought to stay as the engine of Simeone’s new look side. Saul Niguez will likely line-up alongside him but he will want assurances before the campaign starts that Simeone is committed to using him in his best position in central midfield and not all over the pitch — a situation that last season ended up costing his place in the Spain team.
Thomas Lemar must improve on his first year at the club and Diego Costa must rediscover consistency of fitness and performance. His return to the club looked to have been a mistake last season. An escape to China looked like the best option for all but it now seems he is staying.
A lot will be on the shoulders of Alvaro Morata and that has not always played out well at Chelsea and Juventus. He will have almost definitely have the highly rated Joao Felix alongside him but again that leaves Atletico with an experience deficit.
“We want young players who can absorb our ideas,” Simeone has said in relation to Felix’ young age.
If the Argentine coach has had one constant failing over the years as Atletico’s greatest ever coach it has been an inability to incorporate flair players into his machine-like team. Griezmann was the exception which is why his departure has hit the coach hard.
When Atletico Madrid lose big players they have a habit of buying someone even better. The doubt over Felix is that unlike Radamel Falcao, who replaced Kun Aguero, he is still a teenager. Falcao was already 25 and had won trophies at Porto. Aguero might be Atletico’s best riposte to that doubt over their current direction. He was only 17 when he was signed for 23m euros in 2012. For 100m euros more Simeone hopes Felix can be the same success. Behind him the team is taking shape. Brazilian centre-back Felipe Monteiro has been signed for 20m euros and Mario Hermoso and Marcos Llorente look likely to follow from Espanyol and Real Madrid.
Both are 24 and Real Madrid have a claim to both — albeit only in the form of a buyback option with Hermoso. They fact that they want neither player is another suggestion that Simone will be playing with a weaker hand than the big two next season. He likes the underdog status. There were times last season when it seemed he missed it.
This will be his biggest campaign to date. He will need time and patience. The core of his team has been ripped out from beneath him. After seven years in the job he is already feeling this summer that he is staring all over again. The question is does he have the same energy as he did in 2012.