These are exciting days for Atletico Madrid. Almost €200 million was spent on transfers in an exciting and productive summer window, and there is a sense being pushed around the Estadio Metropolitano that Diego Simeone’s side should win something this season.
“We have great players and a team prepared for everything,” Atletico president Enrique Cerezo told Spanish broadcaster Telecinco this month. “They know we demand the maximum. A lot of effort was made and they should understand that this should be a very good year on the field.”
The big effort included Atletico paying Manchester City €75m (£63m; £83.4m at current exchange rates) for Argentine striker Julian Alvarez and spending €42m to sign England midfielder Conor Gallagher from Chelsea. Spanish Euro 2024 center back Robin Le Normand arrived from Real Sociedad for 34.5 million euros. Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth, who scored 23 La Liga goals for Villarreal last season, cost 32 million euros. Atletico also signed Argentine goalkeeper Juan Musso on loan from Atalanta and French defender Clement Lenglet on loan from Barcelona to add depth to the squad.
Go deeper
Alvarez, Gallagher, Guerra and the rest: Can Atletico Madrid afford a €200m summer spending spree?
Such an outlay on so many established stars created a frenzy among Atletico supporters and the club fueled this by organizing a grand launch event for their new arrivals. At the Metropolitano, 30,000 fans cheered as Gallagher was escorted out of the tunnel by a motorcade of Harley Davidson riders on August 21, while the reception was even bigger for 2022 World Cup and two-time Copa America winner Alvarez.
An exciting summer was crucial for Atletico as the team finished on a low note last season. They were out of the La Liga title race before the winter break, following disappointing defeats to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-finals and Athletic Bilbao in the cup semi-finals.
A thorough overhaul of the squad was required and sporting director Andrea Berta offloaded well-paid players who, for various reasons, did not fit Simeone’s long-term plans.
Alvarez and Enrique Cerezo at the striker’s presentation in August (Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Spaniard Alvaro Morata was sold to AC Milan for 13 million euros. Joao Felix went to Chelsea for 52 million euros. Twenty-year-old striker Samu Omorodion collected 13 million euros from Benfica. The departure of unwanted midfielder Caglar Soyuncu to Fenerbahce brought in €8.5m. Defenders Stefan Savic, Gabriel Paulista and Mario Hermoso all left, midfielders Saul Niguez and Arthur Vermeeren were loaned to Sevilla and RB Leipzig, and Memphis Depay’s exit was by mutual consent.
Of particular concern last season was that Atletico had lost the stamina and determination that had always characterized Simeone’s successful sides. Atletico conceded 68 goals in all 54 games in all competitions in 2023-2024, the most of the Argentine’s 11 full seasons in charge.
Even as this campaign began, seasoned Atletico watchers wondered about the balance of the new squad. Would they have added exciting new attacking names without fixing the defence?
Those questions continued after a 2-2 draw with Villarreal on the opening day of the new league season, but the team have kept a clean sheet in their four games since. The key has been a return to form and fitness for Uruguayan midfielder Jose Maria Gimenez, one of the few survivors from the early years of Simeone’s tenure. Gimenez’s aggression and toughness rubs off on those around him. New signing Le Normand and 35-year-old former Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta have also looked solid.
Gimenez joined Atletico in the summer of 2013, 18 months after Simeone (Manuel Queimadelos/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
From that base, Simeone has been mixing his many talented midfielders and forwards throughout the opening weeks of the season. Sorloth scored a classic 9th header on his Villarreal debut. Griezmann scored a fine free kick in a 3-0 win over Girona. Reinvigorated wing-back Marcos Llorente scored superb solo goals in his first two games. At Athletic, substitute Angel Correa scored the winning goal in the 92nd minute.
There is also a lot of excitement around 21-year-old homegrown midfielder Pablo Barrios, who won Olympic gold with Spain this summer. Club captain Koke, 32, remains the helmsman in midfield and extended his contract six months ago until June 2025.
Last weekend, at home to a struggling Valencia side, Atletico dominated, with new signings Gallagher and Alvarez scoring their first goals in a 3-0 win. It moved them into second place in La Liga’s new table, level with neighbors Real Madrid (who they host on September 29) and four points behind pacesetters Barcelona after five games.
Go deeper
Conor Gallagher Exclusive: Feeling ‘wanted and appreciated’ at Atletico after Chelsea debacle
Fans used to thinking of Simeone’s Atletico as a ‘dogs of war’ team may have been surprised by the technical quality of the team. Gallagher’s opener against Valencia was a neat finish set up by Rodrigo De Paul with a perfectly timed and heavy assist. Griezmann orchestrated the pass that opened up the visitors’ defence.
Gallagher is already a firm favorite with Atletico fans, who have warmed to his dynamic all-round style, and Alvarez’s goal was a relief, as the former City player had looked nervous while missing chances in previous games.
“We all wanted Alvarez to score, so he could relax, scoring goals is what he wants to do,” Simeone said in his post-match press conference. “You could see his teammates cheering and the fans in the stadium chanting his name. Hopefully he will score a lot more for us.”
Perfect card from @atletienglish 🔝#LALIGAHighlights photo.twitter.com/oLkLC7rQXh
— LALIGA English (@LaLigaEN) September 17, 2024
Building such a strong squad has gone hand in hand with steady progress off the field at Atletico. Qualifying for the Champions League for 12 consecutive seasons under Simeone has seen a steady increase in revenue in recent years (although a net financial debt of €514m is a reminder of long-term financial problems). A 2017 move from their crumbling old Estadio Vicente Calderon to the modern, tourist-friendly Metropolitano has boosted annual revenue significantly.
Atletico are now comfortably the third richest club in La Liga – their latest published accounts, covering the 2022-23 season, put the club’s revenue at €358m. Their La Liga wage cap of €311m is still well behind Real Madrid (€755m) and Barcelona (€426m), but well ahead of other clubs at a similar level historically, including troubled duos Valencia and Sevilla.
During a staff meeting last week at the Metropolitano, director Miguel Angel Gil Marin reflected on Atletico’s recent developments. There was a nod to Atletico’s historic lowly status as rivals to La Liga duo Real Madrid and Barcelona – but the demand for success on and off the pitch was emphasised. It was proudly noted that Atletico (not Barcelona) have earned the right to play in the FIFA Club World Cup in the United States next summer with their superior UEFA coefficient.
Gil Marin (left) and Cerezo (center) (Alberto Ortega/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Amidst these expectations and the pressure on Atletico to win a trophy, after the weekend win over Valencia, Simeone essentially said that no one could demand as much from the team as him.
“The squad we’re putting together has a good balance, but words don’t matter,” he told a post-match press conference. “We are imagining the best for the season but nobody can ask more of me than I ask of myself.”
When Gallagher spoke to Athletic this week he showed that he has already picked up the “game by game” mantra that Simeone has drilled into the squad.
“Winning something is the goal,” Gallagher said. “The whole team is confident that we can do this. The manager has said we need to take it one game at a time. There are many games and we need to stay focused, every game is so important.”
Atletico’s next game is tonight’s Champions League opener at home to RB Leipzig, a potentially tough game against opponents who knocked them out in the quarter-finals of the 2020 Covid-19 competition.
Finally winning a first Champions League is everyone’s dream at Atletico and the memories of the 2014 and 2016 final defeats by neighbors Real Madrid are still painful. They last reached the semi-finals in 2017 and the league title in 2021 was their last trophy.
The big investment this summer added to the feeling that Atletico were looking to take a big leap forward. Approximately 70 million euros were raised from the club’s shareholders, which include Israeli company Quantum Pacific and American investors Ares Management. At the beginning of July, Gil Marin laid the first stone of a new training ground in a place next to the Metropolitano.
Many in the Spanish football industry believe that Gil Marin and Cerezo will sell their controlling stake in Atletico to foreign investors in the future. In the short term, the hope – and the expectation – is that Simeone can lead his powerful squad to win something again this year.
(Top photo: Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
#Atletico #Madrid #spent #200m #Champions #League #threat