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da dobrowin： Ever since the 2002/03 season, the Spanish capital has consistently had two big clubs in the top-flight. A couple of years before that, just at the turn of the century, Atletico Madrid spent some time in the Segunda division before clawing their way back to the top.
And after those two years of a slight crisis at the club, the ship was once again steadied but still not on the right course. The first years back in La Liga were tough. Atletico were struggling to break into the upper places in the table and, apart from Abel Resino’s efforts that brought them to fourth in 2008/09, their upper limit was the fifth spot at best.
That meant going behind Barcelona and behind their city rivals, Real Madrid. But all of that changed for the better with the arrival of Diego Simeone, who became the head coach in 2011/12 and has been at the helm ever since. In that span, their neighbours changed manager three times while the Catalan giant burned through a total of five.
Simeone was the one who finally brought order and stability to Atletico Madrid and he has been working hard to keep it that way for the last eight years or so. But the times are once again changing or at least they seem to be as we approach the beginning of the 2019/20 La Liga season.
For the first time in countless years, Atletico look different and are close to Real in the matchbook betting.
Sure, it’s the same old Simeone on the sidelines and the Rojiblanco colours are still on their shirts, but yet there’s a different aura surrounding them and, perhaps more importantly there’s a different aura surrounding their city rivals as well. A change might be on the horizon and maybe the abandoning of the iconic Vicente Calderon was the domino that started the chain reaction. However, instead of all the pieces crumbling they somehow fell right into place.
Looking at the squad now, you would barely recognise them at all. Most of the heavyweights of the dressing room are gone, with the likes of Diego Godin, Antoine Griezmann, Filipe Luis and Rodri moving on to pastures news, while new faces are starting to spring up and grace the pitch of the magnificent Wanda Metropolitano. This change in personnel, the stadium and the crisis at the other end of Madrid are all signs the time might be exactly right for the power to finally shift in the capital.
For years now, Atletico were considered to be in the top three of Spanish football but rarely would anyone put them at that number one spot. Even when they won the league in 2013/14 there wasn’t enough for people to talk about dominance or a genuine shift in power. A huge achievement? Sure, but not about an upcoming era of change. Even when they managed to finish ahead of their city rivals on numerous occasions, the last being in 2018/19, all we talked about was the Real Madrid crisis but not the Atletico Madrid resurgence.
Now it’s finally time to talk about that for a change. The pre-season, although it was just pre-season, was proof enough there’s something in the air and the Galacticos might not like it that much.
Everyone can get some slack in pre-season, sure, but losing 7-3 to the team you were supposed to be superior to cannot go unnoticed. And it didn’t.
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Atletico Madrid might have lost some of their key players but Simeone is putting the younger crop to good use already. Not only has the team been rejuvenated but they’ve also made a profit while doing it and have lost almost nothing in firepower. Griezmann is gone and, even though he was Atletico’s top scorer every season in La Liga since he joined the club from Real Sociedad, in Joao Felix the club may already have a solution to take the baton from the departed World Cup winner.
After living in the shadows of Real Madrid, however, Atletico’s time is right now and who knows for how long their neighbours’ crisis will last. Surely we haven’t seen the last of Los Blancos but the upcoming season for them very much feels like a broken record, playing the same gloomy song over and over again: they have the same coach, a similar squad albeit with some key additions and the same tactics.
That would’ve been fine if those things brought them success last year or the year before that for that matter. But they didn’t and they’re forcing the same old tricks again, hoping for a different result. That’s the difference between the two.
Atletico are certainly not the ones to talk when it comes to old tricks. All these years they’ve been playing the same football and it brought them similar results year upon year. They’re among the top dogs in Spain but never the top dog. And now when their rivals are stuck in a loophole, Atletico have a chance to overtake them in the race.
Can they even rival Barcelona for the throne itself? That remains to be seen but jumping over Real Madrid as the more dominant team would definitely be a start.
The time is now and it seems the Colchoneros are ready to take it up a notch.
And about time, too.
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