How have Atlético Madrid evolved under Diego Simeone?

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2 – Player development

Bridging such a huge gap on the field needs some competitive advantage, usually in the form of player development, scouting/transfers and coaching. The Atlético academy; once infamously being shut down by Gil and losing Raul, has churned out some excellent players over the years, as this Outside of the Boot article explains. Fernando Torres and David de Gea need little introduction, while Koke, Gabi and Saul Niguez have become household names and the stuff of nightmares to Bayern and Barca fans, but even Alvaro Morata and Mario Suarez have found relative success. The future is also bright with youngsters like Oliver Torres – linked with Dortmund for a while – or Lucas Hernandez who started against Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-final in April.

3 – Successful transfers

The list of players who became world-class in Madrid is equally impressive and the scouting department of the club deserves heaps of praise. A quick glance at Transfermarkt shows that the club has made 30 million on two home-grown players in De Gea and 18.75 million on Torres. Meanwhile, the sales of acquired players such as Diego Costa netted 28 million, in addition to Sergio Aguero and Arda Turan who brought in 15 million each. Falcao was their biggest signing and aside from enjoying his finest hours with the club, they were able to profit three million on the Colombian’s move to Chelsea. They’ve also spent that money wisely on young rising stars, such as Real Sociedad’s Antoine Griezmann, who has since doubled his 22 million price. Their best move has been splurging on defenders, as this following image from the 2010/11 arrivals shows 

That is 75% of their starting defence now valued at 49 million, plus Koke, who is now valued at 37 million and Diego Costa, who they sold for nearly 30 million.

Miranda and Gabi cost them two million the next year, and while the Brazilian was loaned to Inter for three million and will transfer for over eight, the Spaniard, returning to his original club from Zaragoza has been invaluable in midfield ever since. Gabi is just one of those boomerang players, who Atlético; particularly under Simeone, have been excellent at refurbishing into effective pieces. Fernando Torres’ renaissance is probably the most surprising for English fans, but Filipe Luis’ resurgence is a close second, as the Brazilian went from one of the best left-backs to a rather pale shadow of himself at Chelsea, now back to being arguably one of the world’s top left-backs again.

Such has been their brilliance that even their mistakes, such as losing Alderweireld to Southampton, or signing Jackson Martinez and Pizzi still netted them profits of 10 million pounds combined. Mario Mandzukic was their only notable player they sold at a two million loss to Juventus.

The last remarkable side-note and the culmination of scouting, development and transfer policy is their unprecedented trio of goalkeepers, De Gea, Courtois (on loan from Chelsea) and Jan Oblak.