Atletico Madrid Must Give Diego Simeone the Strong Squad He Craves

Post-match quotes from managers can swing both ways: an insight into frustration and disappointment, or largely saying nothing at all as they guard against talking in the heat of the moment. Either way, it’s not always set in stone that the words they say can be truthful or unchanged after a few days, and that can go double after defeat in a huge fixture.

Say, the UEFA Champions League final.

Following Atletico Madrid’s penalty shootout loss to Real Madrid in Milan, manager Diego Simeone suggested he needed to reflect on his time at the club and decide whether it was the “end of a cycle,” per AS. 

However, there is little doubt about what the individuals in and around Los Rojiblancos wish for. While media reports remain mixed—Sky’s Guillem Balague said Simeone will stay even as Yahoo (h/t AS and Football Espana via Eurosport) reported Paris Saint-Germain were in talks with him—the players and fans all want Simeone to remain in place.

That’s exactly what Atletico Madrid need, but for Cholo to remain and realise his ambitions of further success, the club must do everything to give him the star names and create the strong squad he wants to lift La Liga again and the Champions League for the first time in the club’s history.

 

Despair and Support

Losing a final is bad enough, but losing two—and in the way Atleti have, last-minute equaliser before defeat in extra time and then the shootout—is worse, especially for those who are forced to reflect, repeat and speculate what could have been done differently. Support is a wonderful thing, though, and Atleti fans have shown no shortage of that.

Fernando Torres, himself not quite yet assured of his future at the club, has said the players all want Simeone to stay. Yannick Carrasco, signed only last summer by Simeone and left out of the final starting XI, echoed those sentiments, while the past couple of years have seen the likes of Diego Godin refuse to move clubs and cite Simeone as a reason.

From outside the club, and indeed literally outside the club’s grounds, …

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