The crossroads of Atlético de Simeone: the economic slide contrasts with its need to incorporate players

Sell ​​in order to buy. That concept that usually feels like a mantra on the lips of Argentine football managers is the same one that is repeated these days in the Atlético de Madrid offices. The mattress faces a difficult crossroads: If you intend to strengthen your squad for next season, you must first significantly lighten your salary. As the leaders work against the clock in this task, Diego Simeone explores options for adding reinforcements, even though he knows he can count on the fingers of one hand to the players who will arrive.

forty million euros is the amount the equity club needs to balance its balance sheet and adjust the salary limits set by the Spanish Leagueas revealed Monday by President Enrique Cerezo. “We have to honor financial commitments. We can sign what we can sign. To sign, we all need to sell. We will see to whom it is sold and to whom it is bought. This is where we are. The market is not easyrecognized the leader.

Part of this complexity is a consequence, paradoxically, of Atlético’s good performances and results during the Simeone era. Over the past decade, the team has continuously participated in the Champions League and competed hand-in-hand with Real Madrid and Barcelona in the national tournament. But, at the same time, the club has seen its budget grow From 100 to 400 million eurosan increase that it cannot cover with the income it generates, especially since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

The payroll is very high, starting with Simeone, the highest paid coach in the world: your salary amounts to 3.3 million euros per month, according to an article in the French newspaper L’Equipe released in March. And the Slovenian goalkeeper continues Jan Oblak and the French striker Antoine Griezmann (On Tuesday the club activated the clause to extend the striker’s loan from Barça for another season), who have the two highest contracts in the squad: receive approximately 10 million euros net per year.

But they are not the only ones. In recent years, the captain Kokethe midfielder of the Spanish team Marco LlorenteMontenegrin Stefan Savicthe Uruguayan José Maria Gimenez Y Angel strap They were getting salary improvements, which the club had to accept to disable possible exits in the interest of other more powerful institutions.

This imbalance is what leadership must now resolve without compromising the competitiveness of the team. To alleviate the salary, the mission right now is to find a destination for players who are not taken into consideration by Simeone and also resolve the departure of some who have had a lot of participation in the last campaign, such as the central defender. Beautiful Mariothe Brazilian left-back Renan Lodi and the French midfielder Thomas Lemarwhich in 2018 was the most expensive purchase in the club’s history (72 million euros).

A key player in Simeone’s structure also appears in that list of potential games: Yannick Carrasco. The Belgian, also a key player in his country’s national team, receives a high salary (almost € 7 million per year) and has a relatively low exit clause by European standards (€ 60 million).

In this scenario, Simeone’s primary objective is to preserve the backbone of the team that finished third in the Spanish league and fell in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. And to this are added a central midfielder and a right-back who covers the gap left by the farewell of the Englishman. kieran tripper in January (went to Newcastle).

For the right wing of the defense, the favorite of colos is the holder of that position in the Argentine national team: Nahuel Molina. But after his great season (he played 37 games, 8 goals and 5 assists), Udinese does not seem willing to part with him for less than 25 million euros, a figure unattainable for Atlético if they do not make early sales. The alternatives are the Brazilian ones Emerson Royal (Tottenham) and the Portuguese Nelson Semedo (Wolverhampton), which could come on loan and with a mandatory redemption option for the following season.

With Udinese, the Atlético management has another negotiation open for an Argentine footballer: Nehuen Perez. The Italian team, which already had former Argentinos Juniors defender last season, have an option to have him on loan for another season, but the mattressowner of his file, has until Thursday to cancel this clause and recover it.

In that case, two possibilities would open up for Pérez. One is that Simeone keeps him in the squad, which is unlikely if you take into account that the coach usually works with small groups (usually only uses 21 or 22 of the 25 professional cards that the League allows). The other is that the defender is sold to fatten the club’s bank account.

As for the central midfielder, the target is an elite player, the Belgian axel vizel, which dissociated itself from German Borussia Dortmund. The Spanish press considers the deal closed, even if the salary cap problem would delay confirmation. To register it, Atlético would first have to reduce their budget.