• Simeone. "For me it is not normal to be in the second round"

  • Chronicle: Atlético finds the exit with suffering and will be in the second round

Nine years ago, around this time, life at Atlético was difficult.

The team, with Gregorio Manzano at the helm, navigated turbulent through the League and lived oblivious to everything in the Europa League.

That stark normality would last barely two more weeks.

A hit in the Cup against Albacete would hit the bones of Diego Pablo Simeone, 41, in Madrid.

A catharsis with which the rojiblanco club began its metamorphosis to what it is today.

This reminder is relevant, beyond the imminent anniversary, for the message that Simeone, in the heart of the Red Bull Arena in Salzburg, transmitted minutes after sealing the pass to the second round of the Champions League.

"For me it is not normal to qualify," he launched, still with his heart beating for the long-suffering victory.

Throughout its history, Atlético has reached that peak

13 times

.

However, seven of them, more than half, have arrived with him at the wheel.

It may not be a historical normality, but it is a normality for the current moment.

Traveling without interruption since 2013 among the European elite has changed everything.

Since

Bayern

are in another galaxy,

Lokomotiv

and Salzburg should not have been an obstacle for Atlético to have taken second place.

Normal, well.

And so it would have been had he not missed his aim.

Not winning any of the games against the Russian team, especially after their exhibition in

Moscow

, is inexplicable.

So anything that would not have been seeing the rojiblanco team in the drum would have lacked the reality of a team designed to be among the best on the continent.

Another thing is his role in the League they lead, where Real Madrid and Barcelona surpass him in pocket and obligations.

Gabi

, captain and banner of Atlético de Simeone until 2018, defined it perfectly days after announcing his retirement.

«They don't have the best eleven, but they do have the best First team.

He's the best Atlético for years and he's here to fight for everything, "he explained without folds in an interview with Cadena Ser. For him, as for so many others, that slip in the 2017 group stage was a failure.

The most blushing stain on the brilliant service record in the Champions League since 2013, when that of overcoming the league and starting the fight in the playoffs began to normalize.

Namely: two finals, a semifinal, two quarters and a few eighths.

About 100 million less due to the pandemic

"Not having entered would have been a very tough stick both economically and sportingly," they insist from the club.

And it is that falling to the Europa League would have forced to part with some of the assets in the winter market.

There would have been no other solution to support accounts wrinkled by the pandemic.

His salary cap has dropped by nearly 100 million (from 348 to 252), as has his budget (from 515 to about 400).

Smaller figures that surpass any of the rivals that will touch them in the first round, but higher, for example, than those of Sevilla or Atalanta, also classified.

This year, in addition, Simeone has changed his script for a more casual and offensive one, in accordance with the style of the players he manages.

He has not even hesitated to abandon that non-negotiable 4-4-2, many nights a concrete quad, to subscribe to that drawing of three centrals and two lanes.

Now

Hermoso

and

Llorente

, under suspicion last year, have become indispensable.

In Europe, yes, this new image has lacked the forcefulness that it wore on Wednesday in Salzburg.

Simeone is not the highest paid technician on the planet (about 20 million net) by chance.

And that is why, now, after those first steps through the Champions League, the normal thing, as happened in Austria, is to see him in the second round.

Although he thinks otherwise.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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