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It all sounded like such a simple deal: Antoine Griezmann’s clause drops down in July, Barcelona knock on the door, take the Frenchman by the hand, say thank you to Atletico Madrid and ride off into the sunset in Catalunya. Simple as that – no drama, no ruckus, no soap operas and no saga. But when has anything in football been so simple? Probably never, especially when it comes to superstars worth a fortune.
But Griezmann did arrive at the Camp Nou, albeit a year too late since his “La Decision” ended up being the wrong decision after all. Nonetheless, here he is, kissing the new badge and vowing to give his all to win it all. In other words, pretty much the usual stuff. And sure, Atletico Madrid did their best to stop him. They even tried pursuing legal actions to at least make it more difficult for him to even play for the Blaugrana. But alas, it did not matter much. So where does that leave them now?
Well, it’s rather easy to just presume that since they’ve just lost such an influential player like Griezmann, the Rojiblancos are heading straight for the dumpster. After all, the Frenchman has been a part of the team for five long years, scoring 133 goals in a total of 257 games. He’s been a loyal servant of the club and their top goalscorer in La Liga in each of the seasons he featured for the club. That’s just an incredible and a rather unreal achievement, to say the least.
So the previous dumpster statement might not be so far-fetched after all, right? Sure, losing such a big player and a top provider is bound to have an impact but only if you fail to prepare for it and fail to compensate for his absence. Just look at what happened to Real Madrid after Cristiano Ronaldo left the team. They went from 94 goals scored and winning the Champions League in 2017/18 to 63 goals scored and an extended holiday for the whole squad in 2018/19.
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So who’s to say the same thing won’t have to their city rivals within the capital? There are a couple of reasons, actually. The first one would definitely be the coach himself, Diego Simeone. Despite being at the helm of Atletico Madrid since 2011, there’s a reason why the Colchoneros have him tied down until 2022: He’s a man with a vision.
This Atletico Madrid, Simeone’s Madrid, has his fingerprints all over the crest and their philosophy. He knew what the team needed when he first arrived eight years ago and he knows what they need right now. The principles mostly remain the same: “The people of Atletico always wanted a competitive team. A team that was strong in defence. A team that would play on the counter-attack and be a nuisance for the super-powerful sides.”
And throughout the years he spent at the Vicente Calderon and now at the Wanda Metropolitano, he spent them perfecting that and making sure the team would stay true to their ideals. And they most certainly have done so. Even to this day, in 2019, they are still one of the best defensive teams on the planet, all thanks to Cholo’s great vision and his strength to keep going and keep pushing.
But every team goes through certain phases throughout their careers and there always comes a time when you simply have to refresh in order to keep the squad at the top. Just like Rene Meulensteen said about Sir Alex Ferguson when talking about his reign at Manchester United: “When you look at why Sir Alex was so successful, I think more than anything it was his ability to refresh things at the right time.” He continued; “When you build a team, you go through different processes: a building process, then a performance process, and then you go into decline.”
This brings us closer to our second point: Refreshment of the squad. After eight years at the helm, it would be really difficult for Simeone to keep doing exactly the same things and expect the results to change. After all, while he has kept the team’s philosophy intact, he still doesn’t have much to show for it in terms of silverware. Sure, two Europa League crowns beg to differ but while those are still great achievements, Atletico Madrid are a club that features in the Champions League every season and their aspirations are most likely slightly higher than the Europa League. And yes, they were in two finals in three years between the 2013/14 and 2015/16 but never been able to win and both times they were beaten by none other than Real Madrid.
So something has to give, something has to change and Griezmann’s departure is the beginning of that change, the beginning of the team’s refreshment. New faces have already been introduced. All of that money that was funnelled into the team by selling the Frenchman is already spent but if the early signs are anything to go by, it was money extremely well invested.
It’s out with the old and in with the new for Atletico Madrid and this is something that simply had to happen and Griezmann just ended up being the catalyst for that change. Without him, the gates just might have remained closed and that would mean no Joao Felix, no Kieran Trippier and no Marcos Llorente. Atletico Madrid would be that same team come 2019/20 and while they would still be a formidable side, without any changes, they would most likely just be stuck in the same place as in the last years: struggling to beat Barcelona and Real Madrid in the race for the Spanish crown, getting eliminated from the Champions League and making the same old mistakes all over again.
But now that they have accepted the change and embraced the beginning of a new era, anything is possible for Simeone and his troops. They have already shown as much in their thrashing of Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly that was anything but a friendly. It was flexing by Atletico Madrid and the assertion of dominance.
All they have to do now is transfer that same energy into the 2019/20 season and the new and improved era of Atletico Madrid can finally begin.
All thanks to Antoine Griezmann.
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