How Diego Simeone and Antoine Griezmann will decide what's next for Atletico Madrid and their new stadium
After the Champions League elimination by Real Madrid and an imminent departure from the Vicente Calderon, Atletico cannot afford to allow the hard work of the last six years got to waste
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Your support makes all the difference.It was never going to be the result that Atletico Madrid needed to get through to the Champions League final, but the last European night at the Vicente Calderon did at least offer the club the solace they needed to more happily get through the next month or so.
Because, after his side had so put it up to Real Madrid in their 2-1 win that had them really believing they could overturn a first-leg 3-0 deficit, Diego Simeone also gave some very encouraging indications about his future. He spoke of how Atletico could improve, what they could do to take the next step, and certainly seemed to be talking like he is thinking about staying at least another season. That was the true importance of this semi-final second leg, how it seemed to embolden the Argentine after the deflating and surprisingly defeatist surrender of last week’s loss at the Bernabeu.
Simeone was still very careful with his words, however, and there was one comment that should preach caution about predicting that future. Asked about how he seemed so different to the downbeat figure he cut when Real beat his side in last season’s final in Milan, the Atletico manager explained he “says what he feels” at that moment. The wonder remains whether he’ll feel the same when things settle, when the noise from this emotional night fades away.
Internazionale have the finance now to come in with an immense offer for Simeone, and there is a growing feeling around Madrid that the dynamic between the two clubs has shifted back again, and that Real could well be starting a proper campaign to sign Antoine Griezmann as they sense a vulnerability again.
Regardless of what the team did on Wednesday night, the question of what manager and star player do next is central to the question of where Atletico go next.
Their brilliant 2-0 lead couldn’t completely blow these worries away, just as it couldn’t completely blow Real away.
We of course know where Atletico are physically going, as they make the move to the Estadio La Peineta this summer, but that actually almost complicates this whole question even more.
A move to a streamlined new stadium obviously has so many advantages in the modern game, and every club has to face up to necessary evolution at some point or else you really will fall behind, but the wonder is what this specific move will do to this specific team at this crucial point in their history.
A considerable factor in Atletico’s force as a side has been the Calderon itself, how its very feel as rough-hewn but impressively cavernous cauldron - both in appearance and in atmosphere - has so fitted with the defiant football Simeone’s side play. You got a true sense of that after Saul Niguez thundered home the first goal on Wednesday. That cauldron exploded. The move from that unique setting might not feel so important if Atletico were still at the level they were in 2014 or 2015, of course, but this is the other issue. They are at their weakest since 2011. It’s also why this semi-final as a whole still threw up so many reasons for disquiet, even if Wednesday was still a night of pride. Because, if the first leg showed how far off Atletico had fallen and how deeply an inferiority complex about their great neighbours had embedded itself into their collective psyche again, the second leg showed how important their imposing old stadium still is to their mental stature.
It’s still very difficult to know, then, whether this 2-1 win was a step back in the right direction or merely a grand last stand; an epic night that merely ended an era for a great stadium... or one that also ended an era for a team.
It is equally difficult not to feel Simeone has come to the end of a cycle with this side, especially since five of his core - Juanfran, Filipe Luis, Diego Godin, Fernando Torres and captain Gabi - are now over 30. Even as the Argentine spoke about potential improvement, to get the media talking about how he might stay, he just as conspicuously spoke about wanting to “clone” some of these players. In other words, that they’re irreplaceable; that this may be difficult to do repeat; that it is difficult to keep following the same trajectory.
That should not raise questions about Simeone’s trajectory as a manager. He remains one of the best - if not the best - in the world, but has merely come up against a problem that any of the historic greats who have faced it have struggled with. It is also one that shows how fundamentally crucial economics remain in football.
If you are managing a club against much wealthier rivals, how sustainable is any surge? Is hitting a ceiling inevitable, no matter how much you try and innovate? Does there come a point when a manager has to accept that he has taken them to a peak, and can go no further; where any potential space to excel is exhausted?
Borussia Dortmund have already suffered that in the way they began to plateau even before Jürgen Klopp left, and there are signs of something similar at Atletico.
To go with the squad profile, there is basic performance. Atletico have been further off the pace than ever in the league, and looked so far behind Real in that semi-final first leg.
That is all why it would normally be time to start anew… but precisely why it shouldn’t coincide with a new stadium.
The ground beneath them, however, has already shifted. It just feels imperative for the club that they avoid too great a shift
Even if Simeone isn’t going to stay for the long term - although that is not yet certain, either - Atletico still need him to carry them through the short term. They still need some pillars in place to build again.
Going to La Peineta without Simeone, without Griezmann and with a squad in need of an overhaul could be overwhelming. It could cause the club to revert so soon after the Argentine’s transformative revolution of the past few years.
Simeone himself wouldn’t want that, and it is another reason why the hierarchy are confident he will stay at least one more season. That was the point of his most recent contract agreement, cut to 2018, to at least give them that breathing space. That means they can also be more confident Griezmann will stay, but that is much more up in the air.
There is an acceptance that there will likely have to be one big exit this summer, and goalkeeper Jan Oblak is another who could leave, especially since he has a similar €100m buy-out as Griezmann.
Far from such a sale just allowing them to stay afloat, though, some of the money would go to Simeone’s main priority for the summer if they do stay: a striker to add more cutting edge, and just enliven the side again.
He is currently looking at a number of options, from Jamie Vardy to Alexis Sanchez to Alvaro Morata.
The last option is obviously a Real player, and much of that will be guided by the durability of the “transfer pact” between the Madrid clubs. It is currently being tested by 19-year-old Theo Hernandez’s decision to go to the Bernabeu, that many in the capital see as a precursor to this campaign for Griezmann.
That will really test where Atletico go next.
As it is, it seems this side will just about stay together - and stay as durable - as they move to the new stadium. The ground beneath them, however, has already shifted. It just feels imperative for the club that they avoid too great a shift.
They need the manager to keep thinking like he did on Wednesday, at least for another year.
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