Atleti club on vacation

Madrid is a wonderful city to live in, and Spain has one of the best climates in the world. Atleti is a club in the world's top 10, with a great coach, a history, a fan base that not only cheers in good times , but above all, two things that any average player sees as a bargain. They pay good salaries , and the demands aren't the highest among all the top teams. Life is very good in this team, and that has consequences, because the sporting agony can end really badly and become a veritable elephant graveyard.

The project has hit rock bottom this season. It hasn't failed, but it has languished , and some say the manager's rhetoric is no longer resonating. But the only tangible reality is that it's one of the oldest squads on the continent, with a multitude of players signed in the last five years at the end of their careers or who were gambles to tide them over for another summer. It's true that a significant investment was made in the 2024 transfer window, and focusing on whether those four or five signings worked out or not shouldn't be the real issue. A single season can't fully assess that commitment , much less the way events unfolded. However, there are plenty of players who have settled into that squad.

For a few weeks now, I've noticed in Simeone 's statements an ambition the likes of which I haven't detected since before the pandemic, except for the oasis that having Luis Suárez in the starting eleven represented. Cholo no longer wants to just annoy; he wants to win, he demands legs in public, and perhaps all of this is because he knows this could be his last great project at the club . Energy is like that; sometimes it runs out, which is why he wants to plug in again, especially because the hard work of convincing a global superstar has already been done. He knows better than any fan that it's been a profound journey, sailing on empty nothingness, achieving the objective , but also that a lot of money has come in. The club needs to rearm itself with the huge investment announced in the press, but above all it needs to shed ballast , even if it's difficult for emotional reasons or if it doesn't yield financial returns. Simeone is the first who must demonstrate this, but so too must the entire structure that supports him and where many live, sheltered behind his figure . No more being a resort club, otherwise dark times may return.