Leading Atletico Madrid to two finals within three seasons in the uefa champions league without winning the trophy seems to have become a point of reference for some fans who feel that the Atletico Madrid manager is not worthy to be referred to as a world-class football manager.
Diego Simeone may not have won the uefa champions league title for Atletico, but the Argentine has been able to level Atletico Madrid with Real Madrid and Barcelona in the Spanish La Liga. And that is one fundamental point former Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola made about the Atletico Coach, pointing that it was a unique achievement.
First, let us look at the resources available to the manager. Atletico Madrid gets barely half of what either of Barcelona and Real Madrid gets on TV rights, but yet, the club has been able to equal with them in terms of becoming a major contender in the domestic league and also a key player in European tournaments.
Atletico have at all times sold a key player before buying another, as it has become very difficult to keep big players on their pay role just as it is typical of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Falcao, Diego Costa, Arda Turan, David Villa to mention a few have all come and gone, but it has not been possible for the club to keep these players together for a period of three seasons and see what can be gotten from their being together, and this is because the cost of keeping them together is on the high side.
However, that may not be an excuse for his inability to win the uefa champions league, but may be luck was not just on his side. The manager narrowly missed the title in 2014 after Ramos late equalizer took the game into extra time, the 2016 story was so pathetic that a fan simply said, “It would have been better if Atletico did not equalize against Madrid, rather than equalizing and failing to win the title again”.
Simeone has been able to win the la liga title, uefa super cup, Europa cup to mention a few, may be someday, the Argentine would win the uefa champions league.
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