As Atletico Madrid celebrated their league title in 2014, Diego Simeone had a message for the crowds. “This is not just a title,” he declared. “This is something much more important that these boys have shown you.
“If you believe and if you work, you can achieve.”
The starting line-up that secured the point required in their final league game of that season away to Barcelona had been assembled for less than €45m. Neymar, introduced as a substitute by the reigning champions that afternoon, cost more than twice that the previous summer.
Atletico defied the odds in smashing Spain’s duopoly but the real story of Simeone’s success is that it has been sustained.
Two Europa League wins, two European Super Cups, two Champions League finals and a Copa del Rey.
Eight consecutive seasons in the top three.
Despite a recent dip in form, they remain three points clear at the top of La Liga with a game in hand. Another title is within their reach but it would not be the surprise it once was.
Atletico boast a spectacular new stadium and a £113m boy wonder in Joao Felix. They remain savvier than their rivals and the underdog mentality prevails.
But things have changed.
“We managed to turn a team that had been relegated into league champions,” said full-back Filipe Luis back then. Simeone has now turned Atletico Madrid into a super club.
He has done so on his own terms, playing a distinct brand of football, not mimicking the powers in Catalonia and the capital but providing a counterpoint. Finding that edge.
It has been branded as Cholismo in honour of Simeone, the man nicknamed El Cholo, but it is a philosophy based on more than mere tactics.
It is an attitude, a state of mind.
When Jose Mourinho gouged the eye of then Barcelona assistant manager Tito Vilanova, the Real Madrid boss dared not repeat it with the Atletico equivalent. “I am not Tito,” said German Burgos, Simeone’s right-hand man for nine seasons.
“I will rip your head off.”
Whether it was the hulking Burgos, the feared Uruguayan fitness coach Oscar Ortega, or Simeone himself complimenting the mothers of his players for giving birth to boys with such “huge balls”, machismo has always been a component of Cholismo.
It sends a message. Atletico aren’t going to be bullied.
On the pitch, a club that had once been a byword for chaos and mismanagement is a picture of organisation, individuals serving the collective. Dysfunctional, no longer.
So,that’s all on how Diego simeone transformed atletico Madrid to a super club
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