Atletico Madrid have spent €200m – but are they really a Champions League threat? (original) (raw)

These are heady days for Atletico Madrid. Almost €200million was spent on transfers during an exciting and productive summer window, and there is a feeling being pushed around the Estadio Metropolitano that Diego Simeone’s team should win something this season.

“We have marvellous players and a team prepared for everything,” Atletico president Enrique Cerezo said on Spanish TV station Telecinco this month. “They know we demand the maximum. A big effort was made, and they should understand this should be a very good year on the pitch.”

That big effort included a deal with Manchester City worth up to €95million (£79m; $106m at current rates) for Argentina forward Julian Alvarez, and spending €42m to sign England midfielder Conor Gallagher from Chelsea. Spain’s Euro 2024 winning centre-back Robin Le Normand arrived from Real Sociedad for €34.5m. Norway striker Alexander Sorloth, who scored 23 La Liga goals for Villarreal last term, cost €32m. Atletico also brought in Argentine goalkeeper Juan Musso on loan from Atalanta and French defender Clement Lenglet on loan from Barcelona to beef up their squad depth.

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Such an outlay on so many established stars generated great enthusiasm among Atletico supporters and the club fuelled this by organising a spectacular presentation event for their new arrivals. At the Metropolitano, 30,000 fans cheered as Gallagher was escorted out of the tunnel by a convoy of Harley Davidson riders on August 21, while the reception was even bigger for World Cup 2022 and two-time Copa America winner Alvarez.

An exciting summer was important for Atletico, given the team ended on a low last season. They were out of the title race in La Liga before the winter break, followed by disappointing eliminations to Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League quarter-finals and Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey semi-finals.

A deep squad overhaul was required and sporting director Andrea Berta successfully offloaded high-earning players who, for different reasons, did not fit Simeone’s long-term plans.

Alvarez and Enrique Cerezo at the forward’s presentation in August (Marcos del Mazo/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Spain striker Alvaro Morata was sold to AC Milan for €13million. Joao Felix moved to Chelsea for about €52m. Twenty-year-old forward Samu Omorodion raised €15m from FC Porto. The departure of unwanted centre-back 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 departure was by mutual consent.

A particular concern last season was that Atletico had lost the grit and determination that had always characterised Simeone’s successful sides. Atletico conceded 68 goals in all 54 games in all competitions in 2023-24, the most of any of the Argentinian’s 11 full seasons in charge.

Even as this campaign began, seasoned Atletico watchers wondered about the balance of the new squad. Had they added exciting new attacking names without fixing the defence?

Those questions continued after a 2-2 draw at Villarreal on the opening day of the new league season but the team have kept clean sheets in their four games since. A key has been a return to form and fitness for Uruguayan centre-half Jose Maria Gimenez, one of the few survivors from the early years of Simeone’s reign. Gimenez’s aggression and toughness are contagious to those around him. New signing Le Normand and 35-year-old former Chelsea full-back Cesar Azpilicueta have also looked solid.

Gimenez arrived at Atletico in the summer of 2013, 18 months after Simeone (Manuel Queimadelos/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

From that base, Simeone has been mixing and matching his many talented midfielders and attackers through the season’s opening weeks. Sorloth scored a classic No 9 header on his debut at Villarreal. Griezmann arrowed in a fine free kick during the 3-0 win over Girona. Revitalised wing-back Marcos Llorente scored superb solo goals in their opening two games. At Athletic, late substitute Angel Correa nabbed a 92nd-minute winner.

There is also a lot of excitement around 21-year-old home-grown midfielder Pablo Barrios, who won Olympic gold with Spain this summer. Club captain Koke, 32, remains a rudder in midfield and extended his contract six months ago until June 2025.

Last weekend, at home against a struggling Valencia team, Atletico were completely dominant and new signings Gallagher and Alvarez scored their first goals in a 3-0 win. That put them joint-second in La Liga’s nascent table, level with neighbours Real Madrid (who they host on September 29) and four points adrift of early pace-setters Barcelona after five matches.

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Fans accustomed to thinking of Simeone’s Atletico as a ‘dogs of war’ team might have been surprised at the technical quality of the side. Gallagher’s opening goal against Valencia was a tidy finish set up by Rodrigo De Paul’s perfectly timed and weighted assist. Griezmann orchestrated the passing move that opened up the visiting defence.

Gallagher is already a firm favourite with Atletico fans, who have warmed to his energetic all-action style, and there was relief that Alvarez scored, given the former City player had looked nervous while missing chances in earlier games.

“We all wanted Alvarez to score, so he could relax, scoring goals is what he likes to do,” Simeone said in his post-match press conference. “You could see how his team-mates celebrated and the way fans in the stadium chanted his name. Hopefully, he will score many more for us.”

Perfect play from @atletienglish 🔝#LALIGAHighlights pic.twitter.com/oLkLC7rQXh

— LALIGA English (@LaLigaEN) September 17, 2024

The construction of such a powerful squad has gone hand in hand with steady progress off the pitch at Atletico. Qualifying for the Champions League for 12 straight seasons under Simeone’s management has brought steady revenue gains through recent years (although a net financial debt of €514million is a reminder of long-standing financial problems). A 2017 move from their crumbling old Estadio Vicente Calderon to the modern, tourist-friendly Metropolitano has significantly increased annual income.

Atletico are now comfortably the third-richest club in La Liga — their most recent published accounts, covering the 2022-23 season, saw club revenues of €358million. Their La Liga salary limit of €311m remains well behind Real Madrid’s (€755m) and Barcelona’s (€426m), but significantly ahead of other clubs of a historically similar level, including the troubled duo Valencia and Sevilla.

At a staff meeting last week at the Metropolitano, chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin reflected on Atletico’s recent development. There was a nod to Atletico’s historic underdog status, as a challenger to La Liga’s clasico duo of Real Madrid and Barcelona — but the requirement for success on and off the pitch was stressed. It was proudly recalled that Atletico (not Barcelona) have earned the right to play in FIFA’s Club World Cup in the United States next summer through their superior UEFA coefficient ranking.

Gil Marin (left) and Cerezo (centre) (Alberto Ortega/Europa Press via Getty Images)

Amid this expectation and pressure for Atletico to win a trophy, after the weekend victory over Valencia, Simeone essentially said nobody can demand as much of the team as he does.

“The squad we are putting together has good balance but words do not really matter,” he told a post-match press conference. “We are imagining the best for the season but no one can ask more of me than I ask of myself.”

When Gallagher spoke to The Athletic this week, he showed he had already picked up the “game by game” mantra Simeone has drilled into the squad.

“Winning something is the aim,” Gallagher said. “The whole team is confident we can do this. The manager has said we need to take one game at a time. There are a lot of games and we need to stay focused, every game matters so much.”

Atletico’s next game is their Champions League opener at home to RB Leipzig this evening, a potentially tricky match against opponents who eliminated them at the quarter-final stage during the Covid-19-affected competition in 2020.

Finally winning a first Champions League remains the dream for everyone at Atletico and memories of the 2014 and 2016 final defeats by neighbours Real Madrid are still painful. They last reached the semi-finals in 2017 and their league title in 2021 was their most recent trophy.

This summer’s big investment added to a feeling that Atletico are looking to take a big leap forward. Roughly €70million was raised from the club’s shareholders, which include Israeli company Quantum Pacific and American investors Ares Management. In early July, Gil Marin laid the first stone at a new training ground on a site beside the Metropolitano.

Many within the Spanish football industry believe Gil Marin and Cerezo will sell their controlling interest in Atletico to foreign investors in the future. More short term is the hope — and expectation — that Simeone can guide his powerful squad to win something again this year.

(Top photo: Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)

Dermot joined The Athletic in 2020 and has been our main La Liga Correspondent up until now. Irish-born, he has spent more than a decade living in Madrid and writing about Spanish football for ESPN, the UK Independent and the Irish Examiner. Follow Dermot on Twitter @dermotmcorrigan