Striker Role in Diego Simeone’s Atletico Has Become Among Toughest in Football

He’d arrived for big money, and now he was going for big money, but those details weren’t the most significant. Instead, this was a deal in which the when and the where mattered more, and in which the why mattered most. 

It was early February, and striker Jackson Martinez was off to China to join Guangzhou Evergrande. At Atletico Madrid, where he’d arrived from Porto as the man on whom Diego Simeone’s latest title challenge would supposedly to be built, he’d lasted only six months and had scored just three goals, leaving behind intriguing questions.

Why hadn’t it worked out?

Who was at fault?

What had happened?

“I am the first person responsible,” said Simeone at a press conference days after the player’s exit. “He did not get the chance to show us his best version. I feel part of that. It is my failure that Jackson did not play, but I am not going to change my way of playing.”

Simeone then added: “We wish him luck. I hope he gets back to being the player we all thought he was.”

From the Atletico boss, these were revealing and thought-provoking comments. As he spoke, he gave a sense of regret and frustration, lamenting a collective failure in which both potential and time were wasted.

Simultaneously, though, with a nod to his “way of playing,” Simeone hinted at an acknowledgement that his own standards and success had perhaps given him a problem in this regard; that his ongoing striker search might continue to frustrate him because of his own expectations; that the demands of this particular position in his team have made it among the toughest in the game. 

The recent evidence suggests it might be, too. 

Since Diego Costa’s departure to Chelsea in 2014, Simeone and Atletico have consistently searched for players and combinations to fill the void, but in nearly every case, the Argentinian has been left unsatisfied.

And so here we are: Atletico are in the market for a prominent forward. Again. 

According to AS, the club wants to bring back Costa to fill his own hole. Sevilla’s Kevin Gameiro is another option within touching distance, and if either man were to arrive, one or two others who are relatively new faces themselves will almost certainly depart, just as several have done before them. 

Two seasons ago, following the loss of Costa and amid a post-title restructure, Mario Mandzukic and Raul Jimenez were brought to the Vicente Calderon. Mandzukic possessed some of the attributes his manager demanded, but not others; Jimenez owned even fewer of them. 

Both are now gone. 

In the same season, Alessio Cerci was lured to the club from Torino. Like …

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