into the calderon 
19-04-2024 17:56
19-04-2024 17:56
It’s time for Atlético to stop worrying about the now and step decisively into the future
Atlético Madrid exited the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night, the third quarterfinal elimination in five years for Diego Simeone’s men.
Despite holding a 2-1 advantage from the first leg — and smart substitutions inspiring Atlético to even the scores with 25 minutes to go in the second leg — Borussia Dortmund twice scored two goals in a span of less than five minutes, demonstrating greater conviction, greater confidence, and clear physical superiority above all to advance to the Champions League semifinals with a 5-4 aggregate victory.
Two things that could not happen to Atleti today: a defensive meltdown and a quiet Griezmann Two things that did happen to Atleti today: twice conceded two goals in a span of five minutes or less, Griezmann doesn’t attempt a shot over the 90 mins. — Jeremy Beren (jbberen.bsky.social) (@JBBeren) April 16, 2024
It is the latest in a growing list of horrendous Champions League eliminations for Simeone’s Atlético, each one a little bit more astonishing than the one before. Since Los Rojiblancos last reached the semifinals in 2017, they have:
Been eliminated from the group stage twice (they went on to win the Europa League in the first instance);
Blown a 2-0 first-leg advantage to Juventus, losing 3-2 on aggregate;
Lost to RB Leipzig in a one-legged quarterfinal after eliminating world champions Liverpool in the previous round;
Blown another first-leg advantage to Dortmund, losing the second leg away after eliminating 2023 finalists Inter Milan in the previous round.
In addition, there have been defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City in which Atlético failed to score across both legs, the English sides demonstrating a cohesiveness and a physical level that Atlético have not matched in continental competition for the better part of a decade.
The four goals that Atlético conceded at Signal Iduna Park brought its total on the season to 61 across 47 games in all competitions — the most in any of Simeone’s 13 seasons. Jan Oblak is the first Atleti goalkeeper since David De Gea to ship at least 60 goals in a season, and only three teams in Europe’s top five leagues have conceded more goals in calendar year 2024 than Atleti have.
Equipos del top-5 de Europa con más goles encajados en este 2024.⚠️Luton Town, Sheffield, Salernitana y...ATLETI. Un equipo sin defensa alguna pic.twitter.com/jfisPRhxJF — Atlético Stats (@atletico_stats_) April 17, 2024
Once globally renowned for its defensive structure, Atlético are now creaky, leaky, weak in the tackle, and easily overwhelmed in transition — a dilemma worsened by years of recruitment against the type of players that once thrived under Simeone. El Cholo this season (and in the second half of the last) shed a bit of his trademark pragmatism, embracing a higher line and the technical quality of players like Nahuel Molina and Samuel Lino, but he too reverted to type against Dortmund with Lino suspended and Molina woefully out of form (but starting anyway).
Atlético on Tuesday set up in a low block for the first 45 minutes, and Simeone looked on as Julian Brandt and Ian Maatsen scored to swing the tie in Dortmund's favor. After turning to Rodrigo Riquelme and Ángel Correa for the second half, Atleti roared to life, with Correa scoring a superb flicked goal on 64 minutes that would have sent Los Colchoneros through to a semifinal...only for Niclas Füllkrug and Marcel Sabitzer to take advantage of a back three with a combined age of 92 years, their goals taking all the wind out of the visitors’ sails.
In the aftermath of this loss — an elimination completely of Atlético’s own making — a familiar refrain is making the rounds. Marca and Relevo on Wednesday reported that Atlético will undergo a “revolution” when the transfer window reopens this summer, the same tough stance the club likes to let filter out after a huge defeat or an elimination from an important competition, in order to quell fans’ unease.
ah they’re playing the hits after another gut-wrenching European elimination which demonstrated for the 40th time that they should have changed their recruitment policy years ago. good stuff. https://t.co/jRAoSQuo2Q — Into the Calderón (@intothecalderon) April 17, 2024
This barely stands up to scrutiny. Atlético, which started a lineup with an average age of nearly 31 years on Tuesday night, have many players on short-term contracts and others who are regarded as “immoveable” due to age, form, salary, or a combination of the three. It has contributed to the continued devaluation of Atleti’s playing squad, rated by Transfermarkt as being worth just over €400 million, the lowest among this year’s quarterfinal combatants. This board has a demonstrated history of taking action only when the team’s position inside LALIGA’s top four is under threat — and even if Atlético end up there again this season, there’s no guarantee Simeone can get this group there next year, especially with another summer of “low-cost” transfers. At the same time, Tuesday’s loss will not exactly be mourned in the club offices. That’s because in tandem with Barcelona’s aggregate loss to Paris Saint-Germain, Atlético have managed to qualify for the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States — and its participation in the expanded competition next year will drop roughly €50 million into the club accounts.
BREAKING: There is satisfaction in the offices of Atlético de Madrid due to the figures generated this season, but they still need to qualify for next year’s UCL. The Club World Cup has earned them €50m, and the Champions League around €75m, excluding TV distribution, which… pic.twitter.com/ffgcro7rgL — Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) April 18, 2024
Of course, even with “satisfaction” over the revenue that has been generated this season, it is still essential that Atlético qualify for next season’s Champions League through domestic position. It’s easy to understand the argument for that — money is money, right? The Champions League is the Champions League, and a steady revenue stream is good! Without Champions League cash, Atleti have no hope of competing against the giants of the game in European competition!
Well, I’m here to argue that the revenue flow from annual Champions League participation is immaterial, because in the embedded tweet below, you can see where all that revenue has gotten Atlético: in the form of its bench for the quarterfinal second leg, and in its transfer activity last summer. Where does the revenue go? Why is finishing third or fourth still of such basic importance to the club? Shouldn’t a team which has done just that in each of the past 11 seasons spend a touch more freely and demonstrate more ambition?
Of course, Atlético have done the “spend exorbitantly to keep up with Barcelona and Real Madrid” before. Between his two transfers into the club, Atlético have paid roughly €50 million for Antoine Griezmann — all told, money that’s been well worth it. But Diego Costa’s return was expensive. Thomas Lemar was a €70 million player once. Vitolo and Jackson Martínez were two flops who cost nearly €75 million combined. But getting burned on previous transfers isn’t the excuse that fans are going to buy. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, sure, and while that affected practically every club in LALIGA, Atlético are theoretically better off than 85 percent of the clubs in Spain’s top flight by virtue of its regular Champions League group stage participation.
Atlético Madrid’s regular participation in the Champions League group stage should be rewarded, rather than used as pretext not to invest because things are going just well enough.
We can’t lose of sight of this: Atlético’s revenue hasn’t been going back into the first-team squad in a while. It looks good when Miguel Ángel Gil visits the players in Majadahonda to rally them for the fight ahead, but the chief executive has his share of the blame — he has not sanctioned a transfer worth more than €20 million in three years. Of course Atlético do not have “Premier League money,” the teams in that competition existing in their own financial stratosphere, but only one team from that league — Manchester City — has qualified for Champions League football in more consecutive seasons than Atleti have. That’s an incredible accomplishment that should be rewarded rather than used as pretext not to invest because things are going just well enough.
Atletico Madrid’s 2 clean sheets in their last 20 games on the road in the CL. A club badly in need of regenerating the spine of the team with young legs and mentally tough characters. pic.twitter.com/SkTOeGgtF2 — Brendan Boyle (@BrendyBoyle) April 16, 2024
Instead, Gil is focused on what he believes will be his lasting legacy at the club and a probable cash cow for years to come: the “sports city” complex, which is expected to be completed in 2027 and occupy much of the barren land surrounding the Metropolitano, northeast of Madrid’s city center. Cost estimates have ranged from €200 million to €300 million for the sprawling 70,000-square meter project, which will include a new training ground for the first team as well as upgrades to the women’s team and academy teams’ facilities. A 2,500-seat mini-stadium is at the heart of the sports city, with restaurants, bars, and even an artificial beach set to flank it.
Meanwhile, Atlético have been linked in the press with a move for 33-year-old defender Marcos Alonso, who will leave Barcelona on a free transfer this summer. Iñigo Martínez, who turns 33 next month, has also been mooted as a possible new signing for Atleti from Barça. Gil’s “get out” date, tentatively set for 2027, can’t come soon enough. He is banking on Simeone continuing to guide this sinking ship into the harbor of LALIGA’s top four with an old squad and minimal investment. As we’ve seen this season, with Atlético behind Girona and nursing a four-point advantage over fifth-place Athletic Club, that job is getting tougher with each passing year.
“Sevilla, Betis, and Athletic are getting closer to us,” Simeone warned two years ago.
This club deserves shareholders who care, and Gil really should be motivated to act this summer for one simple reason: if he does not, Atlético are likely to lose its coveted position in LALIGA’s top four well before he is ready to sell his shares. Missing out on Champions League football would devalue the club, potentially costing Gil and longtime president Enrique Cerezo millions of euros at the point of sale.
Gil is still savvy enough to understand that Simeone is the one most responsible for Atlético’s growth over the past decade-plus — hence El Cholo’s oft-cited salary, north of €20 million gross — but how much longer can the legendary coach do this? Yes, he signed an extension to 2027 just a few months ago, but Simeone turns 54 later this month and is about to wrap up his 12th full season on the touchline, still in search of La Primera. Will he really have the energy and the patience to keep trying to extract the most from Koke, or from Álvaro Morata (one goal from his past 16 games), or from Ángel Correa, or from Saúl Ñíguez, or from José Giménez? All because the club can't (won’t) sign their replacements? In addition, how much further will Simeone’s technical staff be able to develop the “next generation” of players, like Pablo Barrios, Arthur Vermeeren, and Samu Omorodion? Barrios has been an asset in his first full season, but the club is probably open to selling Samu under the right circumstances, while Vermeeren has played 85 minutes since joining in January — the coaches seemingly in agreement that the 19-year-old is not ready for this level.
They say decline is gradual, and then it happens all at once. If Gil won’t move aggressively this summer, rest assured that we’re going to enter the “happening all at once” phase very soon, and a night like the one we enjoyed against Inter last month threatens to be the last one we enjoy together for a while as a few more steps are taken down this unsustainable path.
It is no longer a matter of whether Atlético “have to” rebuild and arrest the decline of its first team; it is a matter of whether the club can show the enterprise and the proactivity to rebuild on its terms. This might be this board’s last chance.
Despite holding a 2-1 advantage from the first leg — and smart substitutions inspiring Atlético to even the scores with 25 minutes to go in the second leg — Borussia Dortmund twice scored two goals in a span of less than five minutes, demonstrating greater conviction, greater confidence, and clear physical superiority above all to advance to the Champions League semifinals with a 5-4 aggregate victory.
Two things that could not happen to Atleti today: a defensive meltdown and a quiet Griezmann Two things that did happen to Atleti today: twice conceded two goals in a span of five minutes or less, Griezmann doesn’t attempt a shot over the 90 mins. — Jeremy Beren (jbberen.bsky.social) (@JBBeren) April 16, 2024
It is the latest in a growing list of horrendous Champions League eliminations for Simeone’s Atlético, each one a little bit more astonishing than the one before. Since Los Rojiblancos last reached the semifinals in 2017, they have:
Been eliminated from the group stage twice (they went on to win the Europa League in the first instance);
Blown a 2-0 first-leg advantage to Juventus, losing 3-2 on aggregate;
Lost to RB Leipzig in a one-legged quarterfinal after eliminating world champions Liverpool in the previous round;
Blown another first-leg advantage to Dortmund, losing the second leg away after eliminating 2023 finalists Inter Milan in the previous round.
In addition, there have been defeats to Chelsea and Manchester City in which Atlético failed to score across both legs, the English sides demonstrating a cohesiveness and a physical level that Atlético have not matched in continental competition for the better part of a decade.
The four goals that Atlético conceded at Signal Iduna Park brought its total on the season to 61 across 47 games in all competitions — the most in any of Simeone’s 13 seasons. Jan Oblak is the first Atleti goalkeeper since David De Gea to ship at least 60 goals in a season, and only three teams in Europe’s top five leagues have conceded more goals in calendar year 2024 than Atleti have.
Equipos del top-5 de Europa con más goles encajados en este 2024.⚠️Luton Town, Sheffield, Salernitana y...ATLETI. Un equipo sin defensa alguna pic.twitter.com/jfisPRhxJF — Atlético Stats (@atletico_stats_) April 17, 2024
Once globally renowned for its defensive structure, Atlético are now creaky, leaky, weak in the tackle, and easily overwhelmed in transition — a dilemma worsened by years of recruitment against the type of players that once thrived under Simeone. El Cholo this season (and in the second half of the last) shed a bit of his trademark pragmatism, embracing a higher line and the technical quality of players like Nahuel Molina and Samuel Lino, but he too reverted to type against Dortmund with Lino suspended and Molina woefully out of form (but starting anyway).
Atlético on Tuesday set up in a low block for the first 45 minutes, and Simeone looked on as Julian Brandt and Ian Maatsen scored to swing the tie in Dortmund's favor. After turning to Rodrigo Riquelme and Ángel Correa for the second half, Atleti roared to life, with Correa scoring a superb flicked goal on 64 minutes that would have sent Los Colchoneros through to a semifinal...only for Niclas Füllkrug and Marcel Sabitzer to take advantage of a back three with a combined age of 92 years, their goals taking all the wind out of the visitors’ sails.
In the aftermath of this loss — an elimination completely of Atlético’s own making — a familiar refrain is making the rounds. Marca and Relevo on Wednesday reported that Atlético will undergo a “revolution” when the transfer window reopens this summer, the same tough stance the club likes to let filter out after a huge defeat or an elimination from an important competition, in order to quell fans’ unease.
ah they’re playing the hits after another gut-wrenching European elimination which demonstrated for the 40th time that they should have changed their recruitment policy years ago. good stuff. https://t.co/jRAoSQuo2Q — Into the Calderón (@intothecalderon) April 17, 2024
This barely stands up to scrutiny. Atlético, which started a lineup with an average age of nearly 31 years on Tuesday night, have many players on short-term contracts and others who are regarded as “immoveable” due to age, form, salary, or a combination of the three. It has contributed to the continued devaluation of Atleti’s playing squad, rated by Transfermarkt as being worth just over €400 million, the lowest among this year’s quarterfinal combatants. This board has a demonstrated history of taking action only when the team’s position inside LALIGA’s top four is under threat — and even if Atlético end up there again this season, there’s no guarantee Simeone can get this group there next year, especially with another summer of “low-cost” transfers. At the same time, Tuesday’s loss will not exactly be mourned in the club offices. That’s because in tandem with Barcelona’s aggregate loss to Paris Saint-Germain, Atlético have managed to qualify for the 2025 Club World Cup in the United States — and its participation in the expanded competition next year will drop roughly €50 million into the club accounts.
BREAKING: There is satisfaction in the offices of Atlético de Madrid due to the figures generated this season, but they still need to qualify for next year’s UCL. The Club World Cup has earned them €50m, and the Champions League around €75m, excluding TV distribution, which… pic.twitter.com/ffgcro7rgL — Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) April 18, 2024
Of course, even with “satisfaction” over the revenue that has been generated this season, it is still essential that Atlético qualify for next season’s Champions League through domestic position. It’s easy to understand the argument for that — money is money, right? The Champions League is the Champions League, and a steady revenue stream is good! Without Champions League cash, Atleti have no hope of competing against the giants of the game in European competition!
Well, I’m here to argue that the revenue flow from annual Champions League participation is immaterial, because in the embedded tweet below, you can see where all that revenue has gotten Atlético: in the form of its bench for the quarterfinal second leg, and in its transfer activity last summer. Where does the revenue go? Why is finishing third or fourth still of such basic importance to the club? Shouldn’t a team which has done just that in each of the past 11 seasons spend a touch more freely and demonstrate more ambition?
Of course, Atlético have done the “spend exorbitantly to keep up with Barcelona and Real Madrid” before. Between his two transfers into the club, Atlético have paid roughly €50 million for Antoine Griezmann — all told, money that’s been well worth it. But Diego Costa’s return was expensive. Thomas Lemar was a €70 million player once. Vitolo and Jackson Martínez were two flops who cost nearly €75 million combined. But getting burned on previous transfers isn’t the excuse that fans are going to buy. The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, sure, and while that affected practically every club in LALIGA, Atlético are theoretically better off than 85 percent of the clubs in Spain’s top flight by virtue of its regular Champions League group stage participation.
Atlético Madrid’s regular participation in the Champions League group stage should be rewarded, rather than used as pretext not to invest because things are going just well enough.
We can’t lose of sight of this: Atlético’s revenue hasn’t been going back into the first-team squad in a while. It looks good when Miguel Ángel Gil visits the players in Majadahonda to rally them for the fight ahead, but the chief executive has his share of the blame — he has not sanctioned a transfer worth more than €20 million in three years. Of course Atlético do not have “Premier League money,” the teams in that competition existing in their own financial stratosphere, but only one team from that league — Manchester City — has qualified for Champions League football in more consecutive seasons than Atleti have. That’s an incredible accomplishment that should be rewarded rather than used as pretext not to invest because things are going just well enough.
Atletico Madrid’s 2 clean sheets in their last 20 games on the road in the CL. A club badly in need of regenerating the spine of the team with young legs and mentally tough characters. pic.twitter.com/SkTOeGgtF2 — Brendan Boyle (@BrendyBoyle) April 16, 2024
Instead, Gil is focused on what he believes will be his lasting legacy at the club and a probable cash cow for years to come: the “sports city” complex, which is expected to be completed in 2027 and occupy much of the barren land surrounding the Metropolitano, northeast of Madrid’s city center. Cost estimates have ranged from €200 million to €300 million for the sprawling 70,000-square meter project, which will include a new training ground for the first team as well as upgrades to the women’s team and academy teams’ facilities. A 2,500-seat mini-stadium is at the heart of the sports city, with restaurants, bars, and even an artificial beach set to flank it.
Meanwhile, Atlético have been linked in the press with a move for 33-year-old defender Marcos Alonso, who will leave Barcelona on a free transfer this summer. Iñigo Martínez, who turns 33 next month, has also been mooted as a possible new signing for Atleti from Barça. Gil’s “get out” date, tentatively set for 2027, can’t come soon enough. He is banking on Simeone continuing to guide this sinking ship into the harbor of LALIGA’s top four with an old squad and minimal investment. As we’ve seen this season, with Atlético behind Girona and nursing a four-point advantage over fifth-place Athletic Club, that job is getting tougher with each passing year.
“Sevilla, Betis, and Athletic are getting closer to us,” Simeone warned two years ago.
This club deserves shareholders who care, and Gil really should be motivated to act this summer for one simple reason: if he does not, Atlético are likely to lose its coveted position in LALIGA’s top four well before he is ready to sell his shares. Missing out on Champions League football would devalue the club, potentially costing Gil and longtime president Enrique Cerezo millions of euros at the point of sale.
Gil is still savvy enough to understand that Simeone is the one most responsible for Atlético’s growth over the past decade-plus — hence El Cholo’s oft-cited salary, north of €20 million gross — but how much longer can the legendary coach do this? Yes, he signed an extension to 2027 just a few months ago, but Simeone turns 54 later this month and is about to wrap up his 12th full season on the touchline, still in search of La Primera. Will he really have the energy and the patience to keep trying to extract the most from Koke, or from Álvaro Morata (one goal from his past 16 games), or from Ángel Correa, or from Saúl Ñíguez, or from José Giménez? All because the club can't (won’t) sign their replacements? In addition, how much further will Simeone’s technical staff be able to develop the “next generation” of players, like Pablo Barrios, Arthur Vermeeren, and Samu Omorodion? Barrios has been an asset in his first full season, but the club is probably open to selling Samu under the right circumstances, while Vermeeren has played 85 minutes since joining in January — the coaches seemingly in agreement that the 19-year-old is not ready for this level.
They say decline is gradual, and then it happens all at once. If Gil won’t move aggressively this summer, rest assured that we’re going to enter the “happening all at once” phase very soon, and a night like the one we enjoyed against Inter last month threatens to be the last one we enjoy together for a while as a few more steps are taken down this unsustainable path.
It is no longer a matter of whether Atlético “have to” rebuild and arrest the decline of its first team; it is a matter of whether the club can show the enterprise and the proactivity to rebuild on its terms. This might be this board’s last chance.