Atlético Madrid were two minutes away from undisputed glory. Then Sergio Ramos happened. Thirty minutes later, and arch-rivals Real were lifting the European Cup. When injury time began, the dream of a perfect season felt so close that Atleti could almost touch it, but by the time Björn Kuipers blew for full time the double had been wrenched out of reach. Diego Simeone’s spent players seemed almost too tired to grieve.
Atlético Madrid didn’t fail at all
Diego Simeone and Atlético Madrid came up short in the Champions League final, but their season has been nothing short of a resounding success.
Laurence Griffiths
We can attribute at least part of the Atleti collapse to momentum -- conceding a last-gasp header to go to extra time will knock the stuffing out of anyone’s bus -- but it’s difficult to avoid the idea that Simeone’s decision to start hobbled striker Diego Costa played a role when it game to extra time. Forced to burn a substitution nine minutes into the match, Simeone conceded to Real an advantage in stamina which turned out to be decisive.
More on the final
But had you told Atléti fans before the season that a minor mistake on the manager's part could prove decisive in denying their club a La Liga-Champions League double, they'd have taken it in a heartbeat. No, Atlético didn't manage to do the unthinkable and beat out both Real and Barcelona in their two biggest competition. But they nailed one and were agonisingly close to a second. Simeone's achievement with this team is almost certainly the most impressive managerial display in recent memory.
Atléti’s Champions League run speaks for itself -- they didn’t have an easy group, knocked out Barcelona and Chelsea in successive rounds and very nearly denied Carlo Ancelotti La Decima, but the truth about cup competitions is that it’s much easier for underdogs to make an impression than it is in the league. It’s possible to lift the European Cup without being the best team in the continent, as evidenced by Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side only winning it twice while nobody else could touch them, so a deep Atléti run wouldn’t have been entirely out of the question this season. Winning the league, on the other hand? That’s nothing short of astonishing.
Everything about La Liga is stacked favour of the big two. Barcelona and Real’s TV deals dwarf everyone else’s, and their payrolls and transfer budgets could swallow Atléti whole* with plenty of room for more. Breaking into, nevermind up, that duopoly over the course of a 38-game season was considered impossible. The weight of resources were tilted so far away from Atlético ever being a factor that them finishing in the top two wasn’t remotely close to a serious consideration twelve months ago.
*Which isn’t to say Atléti are a small team with no resources in the grand scheme of things. But compared to Barcelona and Real?
The Champions League would have been the cherry on top of the cake, but failing to win it doesn't change the fact that Simeone has baked the world's biggest and best cake. Atléti's record in La Liga was 28-6-4, good for 90 points; you have to go back to the 2007/08 season to find a team that seriously challenged the Real-Barca duo (Villarreal), and they only managed 77.
Simeone took over Atletico Madrid in December 2011. When he arrived, they were in serious trouble -- 10th place, 19 points from 16 games and a negative goal difference -- but he immediately tightened up the ship, first stabilising Atléti and then driving them to new heights. In 2013, los colchoneros grabbed the Copa del Rey from under Real's nose, then finished third and well clear of fourth place Real Sociedad. The next step (and it seems so obvious in retrospect) was challenging for more important silverware.
How did Simeone manage it? An elite striker, a top goalkeeper, a thoroughly organised back eight and a pressing style which hounded the opposition to death. They didn’t blow teams out like their competitors, but they were significantly better at grinding out wins, taking points in the sorts of games that so frustrated Real and Barcelona. It’s not difficult to see a reflection of the manager’s fiery personality in the way in which Atléti simply refused to go away, capitalising on every slip from the two teams they eventually left behind.
The Istanbul Derby
A title win that wasn’t supposed to be possible became almost inevitable, despite a late blip which saw the Blaugrana move to within striking distance on the final day of the season. But the almost robotic efficiency with which Atléti won La Liga shouldn’t obscure the fact that this was probably the hardest task in all of sports -- this is the story of David versus Goliath and super-Goliath. And David won, even if he couldn’t quite complete the set a week later.
Atlético Madrid's window is probably closing. Chelsea -- who already own Thibaut Courtois -- have designs on Diego Costa. Koke's being linked with a move away. Europe's big dogs, the teams which los colchoneros have embarrassed all season, are going to do their best to use their financial muscle to grind this team down to dust. Received wisdom tells us that Simeone should move on, leverage his incredible achievements for a job at one of those big clubs, and see what he can do with a real budget, because his current side are probably toast.
But if this year has told us anything, it’s that Diego Simeone is more than happy to punch conventional wisdom in the face. Repeatedly.
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