How have Atlético Madrid evolved under Diego Simeone?

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Atlético Madrid are undoubtedly the talk of the town when they progressed through the Champions League final after ousting the Bayern and Barcelona juggernauts. Diego Simeone’s team will face Real Madrid in the May 28th final, a team they have just surrendered second place to in La Liga. Until the most recent round of matches, Real’s bitter rivals even had a genuine shot of winning their domestic title. At this point, having seen the predatory instincts of this team, one would be wise to think about betting on them in late May.

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Just how did they get here though? This article will examine the evolution of Atlético Madrid, going from the other Madrid team to the one that has become a thorn in the side of European giants.

Growing up and watching Spanish football in the 90s, Atlético Madrid were always an amusing team. First of all, it was never easy for people to tell them apart from Athletic Bilbao – the Madrid club was founded by three Basque students who simply just changed the name and the location to their residence in the capital city.

Joining La Liga in the inaugural 1928 season, the club found little success until after the second World War, when under Helenio Herrera (the founder of Catenaccio and later the manager of the great Inter teams of the 60s), the club won two La Liga titles in 1950 and 51. While Real dominated the league from the fifties to the eighties – winning 17 titles in 27 years –  Atlético are arguably their biggest challenger, actually winning four championships compared to Barcelona’s three in that span. The Luis Aragones years ((1974 to 1980, 1982 to 1987) brought only Cup titles, and in 1987, the club got a new owner, the notorious Jesus Gil y Gil , a man with the bravado and right-wing populism that matched that of AC Milan’s Silvio Berlusconi.

While Gil’s political career only made it to the mayor of Marbella, his outbursts were legendary and his quotes would have absolutely blown up all of social media had he not died in 2004 at the age of 71. Here are a couple from the excellent obituary by the Telegraph:

1. Gil celebrated this last triumph by bathing in champagne and parading through Madrid on a white horse. “With my popularity,” he told reporters, “I could be God.”

2.”Players? My mistake was to treat them like people. My horses are more intelligent.”

3. “In 15 years he changed managers 40 times and worked his way through six in 1993 alone.”

Closing down the club’s academy in 1992 and thus forcing then 15-year-old Raul to make the switch to Real Madrid was also not one of his better ideas.

So, while Radomir Antic finally took them to the promised land – winning the double in 1995/96 –  the Gil era was often a train-wreck and by the end of the 90s, the club was 300m Euros in debt and relegated to the Segunda division. Under the stewardship of Luis Aragones; a former player and managing the club for the fourth time in  2002/03, they returned to top flight football, and while talents such as Fernando Torres were developed as recently as 2009, the club was described as “the worst run in Europe” by La Liga expert Sid Lowe. Aside from that title, the 90s and the 2000s saw Atlético being passed by better-run and managed teams such as La Coruna, Valencia, and Sevilla.

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Ironically, in that same year the club’s fortune has started to turn around and under Quique Sánchez Flores in 2009/10, a Europa League title thanks to Diego Forlan’s two goals, and a European Super Cup titled followed suit. A disappointing campaign next year under Flores and a quick hook on Gregorio Manzano meant that by the end of 2011 Atlético – keeping with the tradition of employing ex-players as managers – had hired Diego Simeone.

The Argentine had played over 125 games for the club in two stints and was just cutting his teeth as a coach,  famously delivering the first Argentinean title in 23 years to Estudiantes.  The rest, as they say, is history. In 2012, they would win the Europa League and the European Super Cup again, while the next year saw them overcome Real Madrid to lift the Spanish Cup. Simeone’s squad in the 2013/14 season took La Liga with a record 90 points and was moments away from lifting the Champions League – until a 93rd-minute equalizer saw their dreams crushed by Real Madrid.

Last season’s Barca juggernaut ran roughshod over everyone in the world and Atlético were no exception, suffering elimination at the hands of Luis Enrique’s team in the Copa del Rey and La Liga while Real knocked them out via one goal in the UCL quarter-finals. In the 2015/16 season, Atlético have of course slain Barca and Bayern and were still alive for the La Liga title, level on points with Barcelona (both have identical records of 36 matches played, 27 wins, four losses and five draws) with two matches to go, until a shocking 2-1 loss to Levante on matchday 37 undid those hopes.

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Regardless of that loss, it’s been a massive campaign for Simeone’s men, but how have they done it? Over the next few pages, let’s examine five reasons for Atlético’s recent success.