Clock ticking for Diego Simeone at Atletico Madrid after Champions League exit

Over the past year and a half, Diego Simeone has often shown that he holds two things at Atletico Madrid: his lucrative contract until 2024 and the nagging desire to win the Champions League, which he had come twice as close.

The contract is still running, but the European dream does not seem to be getting any closer, but further away and the lack of a group including Porto, Bayer Leverkusen and Club Brugge underlines that.

Atletico’s exit from the Champions League was confirmed last week, but they crashed all the way out of Europe after finishing bottom of their group following a 2-1 defeat to Porto on Tuesday.

Simeone’s status as the world’s most expensive coach has often been questioned, but the answer always comes back the same: the UEFA prize money he earns the club pays for it.

Early elimination will cost Atletico at least the £8.4m given to teams that make it to the last 16, plus the £9.3m that would have been earned had they made it to the quarter-finals. That £17.7 million is not far from the amount paid to Simeone per season.

They don’t even have the Europa League, and the potential revenue of Europe’s second-tier league, to fall back on.

And maybe they should also sell players with the spotlight currently on the most expensive substitute in European football at the moment – Joao Felix. He has not started any of the club’s last five league games.

Simeone said in his press conference on Friday that he didn’t care what people thought of him. But the cooling of the passion of some fans must hurt. The noisiest supporters behind the goal in Atlético Madrid’s Metropolitano stadium have stopped chanting his name – the old ‘Ole! ole! ole! Cholo Simeone!’ singing is no longer heard.

These aren’t exactly Arsene Wenger’s final days at Arsenal, but fans seem increasingly divided over a manager who has won two league titles and reached two Champions League finals, but struggles to take the club where those who left Joao Felix signed for a club record €127 million (£109 million) wanted him to take it.

The two have never seen each other and more and more they try not to hide it. Not only has he not started since last month, but when he comes in late in the game he tends to fail to impress and then disappears down the tunnel on his own as the team applaud the supporters in the center of the pitch .

In one game, he even threw down a bib after warming up for most of the second half and still didn’t come up. He has not scored this season so far.

Felix does not fit Simeone’s formula for how a team should play and without him Atletico have won four of their last five in LaLiga, leaving them five points behind number two Barcelona.

“We’ve often reinvented ourselves,” Simeone said Friday. “No one is irreplaceable. We found out in 2014 when we won the league, but many players left.’

That title win with a 1-1 draw on the final day at Camp Nou was ‘peak Simeone’s Atletico’ with a very clear recipe for success – a back-four of ‘they won’t pass’ defenders; a midfield quartet that often consists of four central midfielders; and a front two with two hard-working forwards who could destroy teams at halftime, one of whom could also fall back to make a mid-five if Atletico didn’t have the ball.

He has found a similar balance of late and while it didn’t arrive in time to resolve the Champions League situation, the league form has improved.

Club president Enrique Cerezo has said of Simeone in the past: “He is a huge asset to us and it’s people from outside who may not want him to continue.”

But even if that confirmation still holds, 2024 appears to be the deadline for his move to Italy or the track in Argentina.

The club will have already started thinking about long-term substitutions. There is admiration for former Valencia manager Marcelino, but he is likely to become Spain’s new coach in January. They love the current Spain coach, Luis Enrique, but there will be plenty trying to sign him.

For now, it’s Simeone for now. Atletico went through more than 50 coaching changes in 25 years before him. Jesus Gil, the club’s previous owner, and father of Miguel Angel, the club’s CEO, once changed six coaches in one season. Simeone’s nearly 11 years with the club is a sporting miracle.

Last written off, he led the squad to the league title in that curious, pandemic-ravaged season of 2020-2021. He will enjoy the challenge between now and the end of the season, but if he is all the way out of Europe, and if they slip away from neighbors Real Madrid in the league, it could lead to a change being demanded from the outside and maybe even within the club.