Target On: Diego Simeone

If there is one person who is on the radar of any big club looking for a manager right now it's former Inter Milan and Argentina midfielder Diego Simeone. El Cholo has his current club Atletico de Madrid a hair's breath from not only the league title in Spain, which hasn't been wrenched from the big two since Rafa Benitez was still in his homeland, but also from the main competition in Europe. A club that were practically relegated, that were (frankly I think still is) beholden to outside financial interests, a club that has sold its best players for the last 7 years consistently, one that is not reasonably that far from the club that I support RCD Espanyol.

I mean, Atleti have been the joke of the Spanish league for over a decade. They have had coaches like Quique Sanchez-Flores and they have had players like Fernando Torres but the haven't been in these sights in 40 years. It's amazing. A few years ago we were commenting that Atletico de Madrid were a club confounded by their lack of belief, that there was a finite reason why they hadn't beaten their city rivals Real Madrid in ten years. and wondering if there was ever going to be a person to turn that decade's long racha, or year's of struggling results, on its end? Here was a former player that not only took practically the same squad that his predecessors did to domestic and European places but he mad no excuses. Atleti should be competing. They should be winning trophies and it's no excuse that they don't have enough operating capital as the big two in Spain.

What is remarkable though is that clubs across Europe, especially in England, have come to the conclusion that this young coach raised in the depths of Argentine football amongst River Plate and Estudiantes could have a similar impact with their club and with their environment.

I just don't think Diego Simeone can transplant the effect he's had across cultures and languages. He's taken Atletico de Madrid to the pinnacle of European football, he could maybe coach another squad in La Liga or return to Argentina, but to have the sort of impact he has had with a club in both interior and exterior ways, he'd have to have a club where he was a club legend, where his brand of rah-rah football actually stood a chance. Unfortunately, that's not Manchester United where he has been mentioned, or pretty much anywhere else. If there were another club where his shtick would work it might be Inter Milan where he also played but that might be too much for him. What is frankly real is that Diego Simeone might be right for a club like Atletico de Madrid where he played but he may not be right if he has to instill his philosophy at a place where he has no history.

Edited: please note that the original picture mistakenly used a Chivas de Guadalajara instead of an Atletico de Madrid shirt. An obvious mistake that got through which has been corrected.

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